Prayer in Public Schools: Without Heat, How Can There Be Light?, or Narrative as the Reasonable Way to Discuss the Arational. Report on the Second Annual Law Day Symposium Jointly Sponsored by the Center for First Amendment Rights and the University of Connecticut School of Law

Malla Pollack, American Justice School of Law

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Abstract

Prayer in public schools cannot be discussed fully without recognizing the high emotions tied to religion -- and the danger of such emotions. Against a historical account of the adoption of the Establishment Clause, this article reports on a conference in which speakers presented disparate approachs to prayer in public schools: (i) the religious objection to allowing the state to undermine religion which is historically tied to Roger Williams; (ii) a narrow allegedly originalist argument in support of the practice; (iii) a suggestion to defuse religious-factionalism by teaching about religion as part of a multi-cultural curriculum; and (iv) a critique of the assumptions underlying the multicultural cure. The article then sugests using narrative to continue the discussion.