School Prayer Outlawed (June 26, 1963)

Today is the anniversary of a ruling that was far more transformative to American culture than Roe v. Wade (1973).

On this day, school prayer was ruled unconstitutional (a year later the same SCOTUS would opine that Bible readings were equally wrong). It’s the day religion (Christianity) was essentially segregated…and barred in the educational curriculum of America’s children born in a post-1960 world.

Both of these rulings, without any legal precedent nor a violation of a law of Congress to “establish a religion” set America on a secular path. Today, nearly sixty years after these rulings, it’s plausible to trace nearly all of America’s social ills, dysfunctions and vices to these two rulings.

Is this what the Founding Father’s desired or envisioned for America? Was America, as many propose, originally a secular, multi-religious culture? If you’d like to get their take on this ruling, check out my article in the current Christian Living (Boise) magazine.