Regardless of your position, the very mention of school prayer probably makes you feel a little angry. It’s emotionally charged, and perhaps that’s why, fifty years after the Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored prayer was unconstitutional, the debate still rages on. But frankly, the debate is stale. The Pew Stats, highlighted in this recent article by Jaweed Kaleem, show that 57% of Americans still disapprove of the ruling. Positions haven’t changed in half a century: each side knows their position and everyone toes the line.
I’m not going to join the legions of bloggers weighing in on one side or the other, because after 50 years of debate, what can anyone on either side say that would change the other’s mind? Instead, I’m curious whether there’s anything fresh to say about the debate. Perhaps a fresh perspective is needed, not about which side is right, but on why the whole debate has been stalled out for fifty years.