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Senator Byrd

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April 27, 2006

Opening the Door to Voluntary School Prayer

Senator Byrd wants to restore voluntary prayer in schools, and has introduced legislation in the Senate to do just that. In the Senate on Thursday, Byrd introduced a Constitutional amendment which states: "Nothing in this Constitution, including any amendment to this Constitution, shall be construed to prohibit voluntary prayer or require prayer in public school, or to prohibit voluntary prayer or require prayer at a public school extracurricular activity."

Oh, the West Virginia hills! How majestic and how grand,
With their summits bathed in glory, Like our Prince Immanuel's Land!
Is it any wonder then, That my heart with rapture thrills,
As I stand once more with loved ones On those West Virginia hills?

Oh, the West Virginia hills! Where my childhood hours were passed,
Where I often wandered lonely, And the future tried to cast;
Many are our visions bright, Which the future ne'er fulfills;
But how sunny were my daydreams On those West Virginia hills!

Oh, the West Virginia hills! How unchang'd they seem to stand,
With their summits pointed skyward To the Great Almighty's Land!
Many changes I can see, Which my heart with sadness fills;
But no changes can be noticed In those West Virginia hills.

Ah, those West Virginia hills.

For West Virginians, this song, with its prayerful verse, has always been an uplifting reminder of the memories of our childhoods; our fervent hopes for a bright future; a testament to the beauty of our resplendent natural landscape; and a source of solace in times of trouble.

Regrettably, since January, West Virginians have had good reason to seek such solace. As witnessed by all of America, since this year began West Virginia has been beset by a series of unspeakable tragedies. We have lost 18 coal miners -- favored sons of the West Virginia Hills -- in Boone County, in Logan County, in Mingo County, and in Upshur County. In the words of our ancient sweet song, these tragic events “our heart with sadness fills.”

But we West Virginians stand strong despite our grief, steadfast in our devotion to one another and to Almighty God, from Whom all good things come. We celebrate in this Easter season our belief in both the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. We know that while our way may not always be God’s way, His way is the only way. Therefore, our way must be His way. We know that life’s most bitter travails can, at times, sear the human soul, painfully driving good people to their knees -- sometimes through no fault of their own. But we also know that, so long as there is life, there is hope. And that hardship can be endured and, in fact, diminished through the power of prayer. We know this based on experience.

Over these past five years, as I watched as my darling Erma fall ill and become increasingly frail, she and I prayed for each other. We prayed every day. There were many good times, but there were also those that were difficult. Through it all, it was our abiding faith, which we celebrated in prayer together, which I believe kept us devoted to one another and to God, for nearly 69 years. Our marriage was literally made in heaven. And I believe its duration was God’s answer to our shared prayer. So, when I say that I know prayer can work miracles and move mountains, I speak from experience. I am a witness to the power of prayer.

But I am not unique. West Virginians have been, and always will be, a deeply spiritual and reverent/prayerful people. In that sense, it remains as true today as it was in 1885, that “no changes can be noticed In those West Virginia hills.”

The Apostle Paul has told us that, in the face of affliction, “it is our job not to give in to discouragement, but to proclaim the truth openly and to commend ourselves to every man’s conscience before God.”

So, for people of faith, the question remains how best to do this? How do we lift our heads from the darkness to the light? How do we help ourselves and others to “keep the faith?”

The answer lies in three simple words: Let us pray. The Gospel at John 14:13 tells us that we can have this confidence in God: that he hears us whenever we ask for anything according to his will.

The importance of prayer, through all millennia, is recognized by people of faith in nearly every denomination. Yet, in America, prayer is increasingly estranged from public life. Some are hesitant to pray for fear they might “offend” someone. How ridiculous. To think that prayer can be offensive. Offensive to whom? Non-believers? They need only close their ears. How sad, really, that we cannot share our faith, particularly in an effort to comfort others, without being accused of offending someone or, worse, violating the First Amendment. Regrettably, that is the unfortunate situation that confronts the faithful in America today. How can this be possible? Does anyone really believe that this state of affairs is consistent with the intent of the Framers -- Framers like John Adams, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson?

I have referenced the religious beliefs of our Founders many times on the Senate floor, but I think they bear repeating. I think we should not forget the mindset of those who established our democracy. They were not afraid of prayer. They believed in a Supreme Being. And they were proud of their faith. They proclaimed it from the rooftops; they did not hang their heads in shame.

Listen to John Adams! He was the second President of the United States. He served as Vice President for eight years under George Washington. He was a member of the Continental Congress. He signed the Declaration of Independence. In an entry in his diary on February 22, 1756, John Adams wrote:

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God. . . what a Utopia, what a paradise would this region be.

John Adams believed that the Bible could be our only law book. Think of that! What a small but mighty tome!

What about Benjamin Franklin? Was he afraid to discuss religion for fear of offending sensibilities? No! When the Congress established a three-man committee of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin to design a great seal of the United States, it was Franklin who suggested that the seal be one of Moses lifting his wand, dividing the Red Sea, with pharaoh in his chariot overwhelmed by water. His suggested motto was: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”

Thomas Jefferson similarly suggested a Biblical theme, highlighting the children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.

These are vivid religious images that our Founding Fathers proposed be adopted as enduring symbols of our representative form of government. The Founders did not view these proposals as repugnant religiosity, something to be kept under wraps for fear of offending the popular culture. They were creating the culture.

As many know, I have long been opposed to what I call the “censorship” of religion in America.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: I do not agree with many of the decisions that have come from the courts concerning prayer in school or prohibiting the display of religious items in public places. I believe that, in ruling after ruling, U.S. courts led by the Supreme Court have been moving closer and closer to prohibiting the free exercise of religion in America. It chills my soul. Americans don’t want religious censorship. Ours is a religious nation. We are a religious people. We embrace religion; we draw it close to us; we drape it over and around us; we envelope our families in its protective shield. We will not shun it; we will not run from it. We must be free to exercise our religious faith, if we have one, whatever it may be!

The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment state: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . . .”

In my opinion, too many have not given equal weight to both of these clauses. Instead, they have focused only on the first clause, which prohibits the establishment of religion, at the expense of the second clause, which protects the right of Americans to worship as they please. I have always believed that this country was founded by men and women of strong faith, whose intent was not to suppress religion, but to ensure that the government favors no single religion over another. This principle makes a lot of sense to me, namely that government itself should seek neither to discourage nor to promote religion.

We can understand the outrage of many fine people of faith who today decry the nature of our public discourse, with its overt emphasis on sex, violence, profanity, and materialism. In addition, we live today with the omnipresent fear of another terrorist attack; global warming; avian flu; rising fuel and health care costs; and a panoply of other potential calamities over which we seem to have little control. Our nation has every reason to seek comfort through prayer.

Nearly forty-four years ago, on June 27, 1962, two days after the U.S. Supreme Court first struck down prayer in schools, I made the following statement on the Senate floor. I said then, and I say again today:

Thomas Jefferson expressed the will of the American majority, in 1776, when he included in The Declaration of Independence the statement that ...‘all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ Little could Mr. Jefferson suspect, when he penned that line, that the time would come when the Nation’s highest Court would rule that a nondenominational prayer to the Creator, if offered by schoolchildren in the public schools of America during class periods, is unconstitutional.

I believe that this ingrained predisposition against expressions of religious or spiritual beliefs is wrongheaded, destructive, and completely contrary to the intent of the illustrious Founders of this great nation. Instead of ensuring freedom of religion in a nation founded in part to guarantee that basic liberty, a suffocation, or strangulation, if you might of that freedom has been the result. The rights of those who do not believe -- and they are few in number -- the rights of those who do not believe in a Supreme Being have been zealously guarded to the denigration -- and I repeat, denigration -- of the rights of those who do so believe.

The Supreme Court has bent over backwards to prevent the government from establishing religion, but it has not gone far enough -- and, in fact, our government has fallen far short of -- protecting the right of all Americans to exercise their religion. The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment states that Congress cannot make laws that prohibit the free exercise of religion. It seems to me that any prohibition of voluntary prayer in school violates the right of our school children to practice freely their religion. And that’s just not right. Any child should be free to pray to God, of his or her own volition, whether at home, in Church, or at school. Period.

I am not a proponent of repeatedly amending the U.S. Constitution. I believe that such amendments should be done only rarely and with great care. However, because I feel as strongly about this today as I have for over four decades, I am going to take this opportunity, once again, as I have at least seven times over the past 44 years, to introduce today a joint resolution to amend the Constitution to clarify the intent of the Framers with respect to voluntary prayer in school.

Our revered Constitution, this sacred document, was conceived by the Framers neither to prohibit nor to require the recitation of voluntary prayer in public schools. Consequently, the exact language of the resolution that I am introducing today to amend the Constitution simply makes that clear. It states: “Nothing in this Constitution, including any amendment to this Constitution, shall be construed to prohibit voluntary prayer or require prayer in a public school, or to prohibit voluntary prayer or require prayer at a public school extracurricular activity.”

This resolution is similar to legislation that I introduced or cosponsored starting in 1962, but more recently in 1973, 1979, 1982, 1993, 1995, and 1997. I believe that members of the Supreme Court have placed exaggerated emphasis on the Framers’ alleged intent to erect an absolute “wall of separation” between Church and State. I do not share that view. I believe that the right of every school child to pray or not pray voluntarily if he or she chooses to do so is protected by both the Free Speech and the Free Exercise Clauses of the United States Constitution. Even the Supreme Court in the case of Lynch v. Donnelly, in 1984, agreed that the Constitution does not require the complete separation of church and state; instead, it mandates an accommodation of all religions and forbids hostility toward any.

Let me be clear. What we are talking about here is not a radical departure. It is simply a reiteration of what should already be permissible under a correct interpretation of the First Amendment. My resolution does not change the language of the First Amendment, and it would not permit any school to advocate a particular religious message endorsed by the government. My resolution would simply reiterate the Framers’ intent that a child should be able to utter a voluntary prayer. There’s absolutely nothing unconstitutional about that!

This resolution seeks neither to advance nor to inhibit religion. It does not signify government approval of any particular religious sect or creed. It does not compel a “non-believer” to pray. In fact, it does not require an atheist to embrace or adopt any religious action, belief, or expression. It does not coerce or compel anyone to do anything. And it does not foster any excessive government entanglement with religion.

This Constitutional Amendment is neutral and non-discriminatory. It does not endorse state-sponsored school prayer. It simply allows children to pray, voluntarily, if they wish to do so. It permits children to express themselves on the subject of prayer, just as anyone is free to express themselves on any other topic. As Justice Scalia recently held: “A priest has as much liberty to proselytize as a patriot.” The Supreme Court has held that the Establishment Clause is not violated so long as the government treats religious speech and other speech equally. This resolution has a valid secular purpose, which is to ensure that religious and non-religious speech are treated equally, and this secular purpose is preeminent. This purpose is not secondary to any religious objective.

In one of the more recent cases on this subject, the Supreme Court in Santa Fe v. Jane Doe reiterated that the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment prevent the government from “making any law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But, “by no means,” the Court held, “do these commands impose a prohibition on all religious activity in our public schools.”

“Indeed,” the Court ruled, “the common purpose of the Religion Clauses is to secure religious liberty.” Thus, Justice Stevens wrote, “nothing in the Constitution as interpreted by this Court prohibits any public school student from voluntarily praying at any time before, during or after the school day.”

He went on to declare, though, that, “the religious liberty protected by the Constitution is abridged when the state affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer.”

So let me reiterate, that the resolution I am introducing today addresses only voluntary student prayer; not state-sponsored speech.

In one of her final rulings on this subject, Justice O’Connor held that:

The First Amendment expresses our Nation’s fundamental commitment to religious liberty by means of two provisions -- one protecting the free exercise of religion, the other barring the establishment of religion.

“They were written,” she said, “by the descendants of people who had come to this land precisely so that they could practice their religion freely.” And, “by enforcing these two Clauses,” she said, “we have kept religion a matter for the individual conscience, not for the prosecutor or bureaucrat.”

And we should keep it that way. We should keep religion a matter for the individual conscience. But does keeping religion a matter for the individual conscience mean that a school child must stand silent, unable to turn to God for comfort or guidance in times of trial or heartache? No! Even our Supreme Court has recognized that not every reference to God constitutes the impermissible establishment of religion!

Where would we be without recourse to prayer? As we know well, even the mighty King David sought guidance from above. In Psalm 17, he implores:

Hear, O Lord, a just suit; attend to my outcry; harken to my prayer from lips without deceit. . . I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my word. . .keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.

In our nation’s Capitol, just off the rotunda, there is a small room called the “Prayer Room,” which was set aside in 1954 by the Eighty-third Congress to be used for private prayer and contemplation by Members of Congress. The room is open when Congress is in session, though not open to the public. The room’s focal point is a stained glass window that shows George Washington kneeling in prayer. Behind him are etched these words from Psalm 16:1: “Preserve me, O god, for in Thee do I put my trust.”

What right do we have to take from school children their right to voluntary prayer, when we preserve, protect, defend, and even create a special room to enshrine that same right for ourselves here in the Senate?

The Apostle Luke at 11:9 reminds us that such efforts are as much in our own interests as they are in the best interests of a child. He tells us:

Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives; whoever seeks, finds; whoever knocks is admitted. What father among you will give his son a snake if he asks for a fish, or hand him a scorpion if he asks for an egg? If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children good things, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

We must work to be certain that the Free Exercise Clause remains as applicable and respected today as it was at the time it was conceived by the Framers. We must guard its protections, so that all Americans, including children, retain their right freely to practice their religion. Let us make certain that every individual, including any child nestled in the West Virginia hills -- or anywhere else in America -- can pray to God as they please.

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