Indiana Lawmaker Seeks Daily Prayer in Public Schools

An Indiana lawmaker wants to make daily prayer a part of the public educational system.

According to recent reports, Republican Senator Dennis Kruse filed a bill earlier this week that would require all Indiana school districts to make reciting the Lord’s Prayer a mandatory, daily activity. Students not wanting to participate in the prayer would have the freedom to decline.

However, critics of this proposed legislation say that passing such a bill would be “blatantly unconstitutional,” since students already have the right to pray in school if they are so inclined.

“The only purpose of this law is to encourage prayer out of students and to ostracize students who may not want to pray,” said Andrew Seidel, a staff attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “Bullying is a huge issue in schools right now, and to have students have to out themselves (by refusing to go along with a prayer they don’t believe in) is going to open the whole atheist community up to bullying. It’s very disturbing.”

Senator Kruse has been responsible for introducing several bills regarding religion in public schools; most recently was a bill seeking to make “creation science” a part of the public education curriculum – it was unsuccessful.