The shootings in Connecticut have once again raised the debate about gun control in our nation, and I suppose many bloggers are sounding off about it. I'll join the herd, though I'd like to take a slightly different tack.
It seems that many people would like to blame these events on the Supreme Court, which has consistently ruled since 1962 that government-sanctioned prayer in schools is prohibited by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. For those of you who have forgotten, the First Amendment reads, in part, as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." A typical emotional appeal to re-introduce prayer into public schools reads something like this: "A child wrote a letter to God, saying 'Dear God, Why do you let people kill children in school?' God responds 'Dear child, I'm not allowed in schools.'" The take-away message is clearly that such awful incidents wouldn't happen if only we "allowed" children to pray in school.
There are many, many problems with such a view, beginning with the fact that children ARE allowed to pray in school, as long as their prayer doesn't disrupt the class. To top that off, people making such a statement seem to think that somehow the actions of the Supreme Court could cause God to leave! Or, worse, that God is a petulant child who takes His toys and leaves because the game isn't going His way!
Another big problem with this view is that school violence occurred long before the Supreme Court rulings of 1962 (the worst incident of violence occurred in Michigan in the 1920's). History teaches us that violence against children has been around as long as there have been children; it's even in the Bible (slaughter of the innocents, anyone?)
Instead of pushing their particular views on the rest of us, those arguing for prayer in school would be much more helpful if they turned their attention to real causes for such violence. But of course that is pretty complex - many factors play into this - and we as a society don't deal well with complexity. We like simple answers, even if they're the wrong answers. The fact is, such violence has many sources, but two which should require our immediate attention are mental health and the easy access to semi-automatic and automatic guns.
Until we deal responsibly with those two issues, we can expect more incidents of mass-shootings, in school and elsewhere.
A related post by blogger Steve Benen:
ReplyDeleteNeil Cavuto said that many invariably ask after tragedies like this, "How could God let this happen?" Huckabee responded:
"Well, you know, it's an interesting thing. We ask why there is violence in our schools but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage? [...]
"You know, God wasn't armed. He didn't go to the school. But God will be there in the form of a lot people with hugs and with therapy and a whole lot of ways in which I think he will be involved in the aftermath. Maybe we ought to let him in on the front end and we wouldn't have to call him to show up when it's all said and done at the back end."
So, by Huckabee's reasoning, the separation of church and state is at least partially responsible for a gunman killing 26 people, including 20 children. There are a few problems with such a perspective.
Theologically, many Christians believe God is omnipresent, and can't be "systematically removed" from anything. For that matter, there's very little in the Christian tradition that suggests God punishes children when constitutional law hurts His feelings.
Politically, Huckabee's comments -- seeking to exploit a violent tragedy to push a bogus cultuyre war agenda -- are reminder that the former Arkansas governor and failed presidential candidate occasionally just isn't a nice guy.
And legally, Huckabee doesn't have the foggiest idea what he's talking about.
For the Republican pundit, Americans "have systematically removed God from our schools," presumably a reference to Supreme Court rulings prohibiting state-sponsored, government-endorsed religion in public schools.
What Huckabee may not appreciate is just how many religious rights public school students currently enjoy. Contrary to myth, students can pray before, during, and after school, so long as it's not disruptive to class. They can say grace before meals in the cafeteria, they can invite classmates to religious services, and they can form after-school religious clubs. All of this is legal right now, under existing law and court precedents, suggesting if anyone has tried to "systematically remove" religion from public schools, they've failed.
The only thing the law prohibits is schools and school officials interfering. Government, in other words, must remain neutral, leaving religious lessons in the hands of families and faith leaders.
Huckabee may find this offensive, and may prefer big government step in to promote religion. That's certainly his right. But to blame horrific violence on his confusion about church-state separation is, at a minimum, deeply unfortunate.