In very short statements, the two leading presidential candidates have voiced opposing views on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against school-sponsored prayer to open public high school football games.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the expected Republican presidential nominee, issued a two-sentence statement.
“Today’s ruling is disappointing,” he said, pointing to the June 19 “Santa Fe Independent School District vs. Doe” ruling. “I support the constitutionally guaranteed right of all students to express their faith freely and participate in voluntary, student-led prayer,” Bush added.
A spokesman for expected Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Al Gore, said Gore also favors voluntary student prayer but affirms the Supreme Court ruling.
“He supports the decision by the Supreme Court,” Gore spokesman Jano Cabrera told Associated Baptist Press. Gore “does support prayer in school and school-related events as long as the participation is truly voluntary and it follows the Department of Education guidelines,” Cabrera said. But Gore feels the court reached the appropriate conclusion that the Santa Fe policy amounted to “government-sponsored prayer.”
The high court said Santa Fe’s policy allowing students to elect another student to lead the stadium over the intercom in prayer placed too much power in the hands of the majority over minority faith groups.
Top U.S. lawmakers also reacted to the ruling, including Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., who touted his failed effort in previous congresses to pass a constitutional amendment that would open the door for school-sponsored religious activities and tax-funded religious education and programs.
Istook said the ruling is the “latest step of using the First Amendment to oppose religion rather than to protect it.”
He said the “distortion has become so entrenched that a Constitutional amendment — such as the Religious Freedom Amendment I have sponsored — remains a necessity to correct this abuse.”
“Unfortunately,” Istook continued, “we don’t have the votes to win the necessary two-thirds support for such an amendment from the current Congress. I remain hopeful that this will change after this year’s elections.”
And House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma criticized the ruling. “I don’t know how many members of the Supreme Court have faced down a 300-pound linebacker on the football field,” he said. “I have, and I can tell you this: If you didn’t pray before the game started you definitely will before it’s over.”
The National Council of the Churches of Christ said the high court upheld the principle “that it is not the business of government to sponsor and promote religious exercises in public schools.”
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