Ryan supports states’ right to allow school prayer
PROVO, Utah — Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said yesterday that he supports prayer in public schools.
The Wisconsin congressman addressed the issue during a brief stop inside a Republican volunteer center in Provo, Utah. He was in the state to attend a fundraiser.
Asked by a volunteer whether he supported giving states the right to allow “prayer or pledge” in schools, Ryan said he did.
“That’s a constitutional issue of the states, moral responsibility of parents, education,” Ryan continued.
“Exactly, so I am hoping to try and push that,” said the volunteer, 40-year-old Jenny Free, of Highland, Utah, a mother of nine.
“You know in Utah, I would think you would have a pretty good chance,” Ryan responded.
The remarks are generally in line with views expressed by GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who said last year that he supports prayer in public schools as well. Romney told an Iowa audience that there should be more prayer in schools and more “religious ornamentation” in the public square.
“I’m not looking for teachers to have prayer every day in the classroom, but I do think at special ceremonies — graduation, football games and the like, that calling on our creator is a good idea,” he told CNN.
In the early 1960s, the Supreme Court struck down government-mandated prayer and Bible study in public schools. Voluntary, individual student prayers are still legal in public schools.
Also see: School prayer
Tags: presidential election, religious belief, school prayer, Utah
3 Responses to “Ryan supports states’ right to allow school prayer”
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Ken Paulson is president and chief executive officer of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and in Washington, D.C. Previously, Paulson served as the editor and senior vice president/news of USA Today.
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John Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center in 1991 with the mission of creating national discussion, dialogue and debate about First Amendment rights and values.
Dr. Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum. He writes and speaks extensively on religious liberty and religion in American public life.
David L. Hudson Jr. is an expert in First Amendment issues and a regular contributor to the First Amendment Center's website. Hudson teaches law and was a scholar at the First Amendment Center.
Tiffany Villager is a contributor to the First Amendment Center's website and was the director of First Amendment studies at the First Amendment Center.
Romney & Ryan once again show their complete disregard for the Constitutional separation of church & state. These two will be a bane if somehow they are elected. It is up to each of us to do our part and vote for the candidate that will support the separation of church & state.
Our US Bill of Rights does not prohibit the expression of religion provided it does not violate the civil rights of other citizens to do so; what it prohibits are laws favoring the “establishment of religion” which prohibits others from expressing their faith, which our forefathers understood to mean religions endorsed by the government, though our courts have not clearly affirmed this though they allow the establishment of secularism, which favors a particular group and will never unite our nation because freedom of all people comes only in a faith providing an equality of all people as our Declaration of Independence declares, even those who wish to express their faith in God as long as they do not prohibit others to do likewise.
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