Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court decisions of 1962 and 1963 that outlawed government-required prayers and Bible reading in the public schools, some state and federal legislators have been trying to find a way to restore them on a voluntary basis. One of the most persistent crusaders has been Republican Senator Jesse Helms, a Baptist from North Carolina.
Helms last year served notice that he would attach to a judicial bill an amendment that would permit “voluntary” prayer in public schools. The Senate let the bill languish in committee, so there was no vote on the prayer issue. Last month the senator introduced a surprise amendment to liberal-backed legislation that would create a Cabinet-level department of education. Under the amendment, school prayer cases could be decided only by state courts; the federal court system could not intervene. On a roll call following a tie vote, the amendment passed by a vote of 47 to 37.
It is ironic, argued Helms, that the Senate begins each session with prayer while millions of school children are denied the same privilege.
Supporters of the education bill, warning that the legislation would be killed if the prayer rider remained, called a recess to work out strategy. Over the weekend, church leaders on both sides of the issue bombarded senators with telegrams and telephone calls.
Helms read into the record telegrams of support from television preacher Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson of Christian Broadcasting Network, Ben Armstrong of National Religious Broadcasters, Robert Dugan of the National Association of Evangelicals, James Boice of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and others.
Among those leading the attack against the Helms move was Pastor Jimmy Allen of First Baptist Church in San Antonio, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a leader of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. (Helms is a member of the Hays Barton [Southern] Baptist Church in Raleigh and attends First Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, when he is in Washington.)
As a result of all the weekend arm-twisting, the Senate by a vote of 51 to 40 shunted the Helms amendment onto a judicial bill identical to the one that died in committee last year. Helms sounded the death knell. The judical bill, he lamented, “does not have a chance of survival.”
Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) joined in the floor attack against the Helms proposal. He called it unconstitutional and said it would mark the first time in American history “that the Congress has voted to exclude from jurisdiction of federal courts” subjects involving “individual rights and liberties enshrined in the Constitution.”
Declared Helms: “I want a senator to stand up and identify one child in this country who has ever been harmed by voluntary prayer in the public schools.” There were no takers.
In commenting on the ruckus, President Carter said he agrees with the Supreme Court rulings of 1962 and 1963. Government “ought to stay out of the prayer business,” he said, and he expressed opposition to Congress enacting any legislation in the matter. Even voluntary prayers are out. Said he: “Sometimes a student might object even to so-called voluntary prayer when it’s public and coordinated. It might be very embarrassing to a young person to say, ‘I want to be excused from the room because I don’t want to pray.’ ”
Prayer, said the President, “ought to be an individual matter between a person and God.”
