U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards said he believes in school prayer, as long as teachers do not lead it. “What I’m not in favor of is for a teacher to go to the front of the classroom and lead the class in prayer,” the former North Carolina senator, who is a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said this week on Belief.net in his first major interview on his faith. “Because I think that by definition means that that teacher’s faith is being imposed on children who will almost certainly come from different faith beliefs,” he said. “Allowing time for children to pray for themselves, to themselves, I think is not only OK, I think it’s a good thing.”Jewish civil liberties groups prefer no prayer but have accepted such “moment of silence” prayers as a compromise that falls short of constitutional bans on government-endorsed prayer. Edwards also said that although he does not believe America is a Christian nation, “America is a nation of faith.” He adds that “by way of heritage, there’s a powerful Christian thread through all of American history.”
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