School prayer goes on every day in America, usually right before a test.
Kids can pray any time they please.
They can pray silently; they can pray out loud (as long as it doesn't disturb the class); they can pray in the halls, in gym and at lunch.
What is now being talked about, however, is a constitutional amendment to create state-sanctioned prayer in the public schools.
Why do we need this?
Because conservative Christians believe that prayer will make kids better students and better people.
To which I say: God help us.
I do not deny the power of prayer. But standing up at the beginning of each day and mumbling words -- which is what will happen in the schools -- will not make you a better person.
Jim Bakker prayed all the time. So did Jimmy Swaggart. Loudly. And on television.
Did it make them better?
The vast majority of priests in this country are good and holy men. But those small number of priests who are child molesters were not transformed by the prayers they said each day.
God not only hears what you say, but, I believe, He also looks into your heart. And the mere recitation of prayer is not going to impress Him.
Nor will it make our schools better. A few lightning bolts might help, or maybe another Great Flood, but prayer? Come on.
We have not had so useless a debate in America since Congress got all hot and bothered about an amendment to ban flag burning.
We need kids spending their time in school reading and writing and doing math, not mumbling prayers.
I grew up in a household where prayers were said out loud each week. But I was also taught that God helps those who help themselves.
We don't need to teach kids that all they need do is pray in school to make themselves better.
We need to teach them to get educated and work hard.
And if they want to pray, too, that's great. They can do that whenever they want.
But the power of the state should not be used to make prayer official.
And don't kid yourself that those behind this movement want a moment of silence or some nice non-sectarian prayer that all religions can share.
That is not what they want.
A spokesman for the next speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, told the Washington Post: "I think we are looking at voluntary schoolprayer. Not voluntary silence."
And what kind of prayer will be conducted in the schools?
One of the leading advocates for school prayer in America is Texas minister David Barton.
He has written a book arguing that the Supreme Court's ban on school prayer has led to an increase in violent crime, divorce and teen pregnancy, and a drop in student scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
What kind of prayer does Barton want in the schools to correct all these things?
Each school district would vote.
And if a majority voted for a Christian prayer or mandatory Bible classes, that is what everyone in the school district would have to accept.
What about Jews or Muslims or Hindus or other non-Christians? (To say nothing of atheists and agnostics.)
Their only recourse, Barton says, would be to persuade the Christian majority to change its vote.
Otherwise the non-Christians would just have to tolerate the Bible classes and the prayers.
"On any issue you will always have a group that has its rights violated," Barton says. "If the vote is 98-2, then the two shouldn't win in this country."
And since America is an overwhelmingly Christian country, we can anticipate that Christians will "win" in an overwhelming number of school districts.
This is the America Barton wants. A Christian America. An America where the majority is allowed to impose its will on the minority. Because, as he says, a minority should expect to have "its rights violated."
That's the bad news. The good news is that if Barton is correct, fTC the recitation of prayer will make people smarter, more law abiding and more moral.
But in Washington our senators and representatives begin each day with a prayer.
And it hasn't done much for them.