President Reagan maintained Thursday that although he has not been able to get Congress to adopt a constitutional amendment allowing voluntary prayer in the public schools, he believes school prayer will again become a reality.
“I’m convinced that one day such a measure will be passed,” Reagan told some 8,000 cheering delegates at a student congress on evangelism.
The president noted that the Constitutional Convention opened its sessions with a prayer, as has the U.S. Congress since its inception. “Isn’t it time we let God back in the classrooms?” he asked.
Reagan, who was consistently applauded by the young evangelicals, attacked those who “misread the Constitution” by opposing “public symbols” of religion or mentioning God in the schools. He did not elaborate on what symbols he meant.
The president noted that his administration has had success with the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the 1984 Equal Access Law, which requires that prayer groups be allowed to use the schools on the same basis as other extracurricular activities.
“If a math group or a chess group can meet after school, then so can a prayer group,” he said.
Reagan said that the administration had also won a victory in the recent Supreme Court decision upholding a 1981 law that provides funds to private groups including those with religious ties to promote sexual abstinence among teenagers.
Vice President George Bush has supported the administration on school prayer and other social issues, including opposition to abortion, an issue that Reagan also stressed to his audience.
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