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Scott Hogenson of TownHall.com
Perhaps the single biggest factor contributing to America’s rising crime rate can be traced back to 1962. That was when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a voluntary, non-denominational prayer recited by school kids in New York State classrooms violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
For the record, the prayer that ignited that controversy reads as follows: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.”
These 22 words were so repellant to Steven Engel, a founding member of the New York Civil Liberties Union, that he became the lead plaintiff in the effort to prohibit the recitation of them. After years of dogged effort, Engel succeeded in preventing children from acknowledging God in school.
What has replaced prayer in schools during the 61 years since the Engel v. Vitale decision? New York City Mayor Eric Adams knows. Adams, a retired NYPD captain, told the city’s religious leaders during an Interfaith Breakfast in Manhattan earlier this month, “When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.”
Adams is not exactly a card carrying member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, so his observation cannot be dismissed as some nascent conservative push for an American theocracy. Whether he was hinting at actual policy or simply pandering to a crowd of religious people I cannot say but to his credit, he hit the nail on the head with his words.
The prayers mentioned by Adams are as varied as the people who invoke them but they are fundamentally an appeal to God, and the acknowledgement of a higher power and the wisdom that accompanies it. Such guidance takes many forms among different faiths but the world’s largest religions share the common wisdom of the 10 Commandments.