Word: prayers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...rejection of the amendment was particularly disappointing for President Reagan. A longtime supporter of school prayer, Reagan revived the issue in this election year as a way to rally his conservative core constituency. Even though the Executive Branch has no official constitutional role in the amendment process, Reagan endorsed a version of the proposal that would have permitted spoken prayer in classrooms. When conservative Republican Orrin Hatch drew up an alternative proposal permitting only silent prayer, correctly arguing that it would have a better chance of passage, Reagan pressured him into backing down...
...President, we have just begun to fight!" Most Senators, however, wandered out of the chamber, apparently relieved that the voting was behind them. The controversy may persist, but the issue in the Senate and House is dead, at least for this year. If the President is reelected, the school-prayer amendment will most likely be resurrected. Said Reagan last week: "Our struggle will...
Thankfully, the Senate Tuesday rejected the proposed amendment by a margin of 11--with moderate Republicans tipping the balance. School and prayer are, quite simply, an unacceptable fusion of church and state, as the Senate correctly resolved once again. But the closeness of the vote and the determination of those supporting the measure warrant a close look at the politics of school prayer...
Voters will recall that the question of voluntary prayer was a major part of Reagan's platform in 1980, but has--thank God--been noticeably dormant ever since. But with the election year revving up into full gear, Reagan and his cohorts recently resuscitated the issue. This turn of events throws considerable doubt on the Reaganites' claims that all they are trying to do is to welcome the God "who loves us" back into the classroom. Rather, it suggests tht Reagan wants to shore up support among New Right groups in the South and Roman Catholics in the North...
More important, though, voters should be watchful of the apparent willingness of Reagan and some Congressmen to sell their political souls to religious lobbies; with school prayer on hold, at least for the moment, these politicians may well be seeking to wave the banner of God in some other sector of official life...