This is the first thorough examination of school prayer to bring together the experiences of parents and children involved in contesting public school sanctioned prayer and Bible reading. Alley explores the way in which terms like "nonpreferentiaIism", "toleration" and "accommodation" are being used to hide violations of the First Amendment, while religious personalities, including Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson have crafted strategies to effect some form of majority religious establishment in public schools systems across the nat ion. Personal interviews were conducted with those involved in seven prominent cases beginning with the McCollum case decided by the Supreme Court in 1945 and concluding with the ongoing struggle of Rachel Bauchman and Kevin Herdahl to protest official school activities in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Ecru, Mississippi.
Each story challenges communities that impose the mores and cultural patterns of religion on their public schools. The result, in most instances, has been angry protests as well as threats against parents and children, and/or property damage.
There is an answer to the often asked question, "What's wrong with a little prayer'?" One need only observe the ways in which religious fervor leads to the use of the Bible and prayer as a weapon against minorities.
ROBERT S. ALLEY (Richmond, VA) is professor of Humanities at the University of Richmond and executive director of the James Madison Memorial Committee. He is the author of School Prayer and the editor of James Madison on Religious Liberty.
277 pages (Index) ISBN 1-57392-097-5 Cloth