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| | Debate on school prayer bill turns heated
Friday, Apr 8, 2005 By Wesley Brown Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Debate on a school prayer bill turned heated and sometimes personal during a packed meeting Thursday before the House Committee on Education. Despite warnings that House Bill 2971 by Rep. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, could lead to lawsuit, interrupt school activities and force school administrators to referee challenges on religious freedom, the education panel easily cleared the bill in a hastily called voice vote. Afterwards, Pritchard shouted, "God Bless You," and several members of the committee got out of their seats, stopped the meeting and congratulated one other. But well before the vote took place, discussion on HB 2971 strayed away from the merits of the bill and quickly moved toward a debate on the issue of prayer in school. As written, HB 2971 will prevent school officials from interfering with student-initiated prayers at public functions at the state's 254 schools. Rita Sklar, executive director of the Arkansas chapter of American Civil Liberties Union, told the committee that adopting the bill would lead to government-sponsored school prayer, which is the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is illegal. "Individually, under several circumstances, students have a lot of religious liberty rights that we are all interesting in protecting," Sklar said. "But, this bill, however, although well-intentioned ... I believe it is misleading." Sklar said by enacting a law that the school cannot interfere with student-initiated prayer, the Legislature would in fact be sponsoring the activity. "The Supreme Court of the United States has said that is not permissible," Sklar said. "While students do have the right to gather outside the game or on the side together in a huddle and have a prayer, they do not have the right to get up and lead the gym and use the PA system in a prayer." Further, Sklar said, the student prayer proposal would open the door for students to disrupt school activities with prayers of any faith or belief. "If they are going to open up the podium and make it truly an open forum, then it's not just going to be the Lord's Prayer that they are going to allow," Sklar said of school officials. "But they would have to allow a child to read from the Book of Mormon, or to read a Satanist or pagan prayer or to read from the Koran or any other religious message." However, several committee members downplayed Sklar's concerns and questioned the motives of the ACLU. Rep. Tommy Dickinson, D-Newport, a co-sponsor of HB 2971, said the bill had been vetted through the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington D.C.-based group that provides legal advice on many religious and constitutional matters. "I know the ACLU and the ACLJ have often come to battle over these issues," Dickinson told Sklar. The retired high school guidance counselor said student prayer at school events is part of an American heritage that should not be taken away. Rep. Mark Martin, R-Prairie Grove, questioned Sklar about her personal beliefs and the ACLU agenda. "Is it fair to say that you would like 'In God We Trust' removed from our money?" Martin asked Sklar, who told him that the question was irrelevant and refused to answer. Martin, reading from a prepared statement, then accused Sklar and the ACLU of not only being against prayer in schools and seeking to thwart religious expression, but said the group was also anti-Christian. "Is it not fair to say that you are not interested in religious liberty at all, but instead interested in silencing one religion?" Martin, a Baptist, asked Sklar before committee chair Rep. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, ended his line of questioning. After a heated back-and-forth between Sklar and Martin, and Elliott's effort to get the debate back on track, Rep. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said that co-sponsors of HB 2971 were inflaming the debate to paint opponents of the bill as anti-Christian. She defended opposition of the bill by paraphrasing a passage of Scripture where Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. "I don't know if you are familiar with Matthew 6:5-8, which says 'go into your secret closet and pray, and do not be like the hypocrites who say loud prayers at the gate. I already know what you already need before you ask me.' "Is that correct?" Chesterfield asked Sklar, while glancing around at other members of the committee. Following Chesterfield's Bible lesson, Rep. Shirley Walters, R-Greenwood, one of the 41 House co-sponsors of Pritchard's bill, called for immediate consideration of the measure. The measure still must be approved by the House, then must be moved through the Senate before going to the governor's desk. A lack of time may hamper the bill's chance of becoming law since the session could end as early as today or Saturday. There are 15 co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate. |
