Quote Originally Posted by slippedcork View Post
"But Christians - who by the way still make up more than 60% of the US population - cannot utter a prayer in public, much less be given special privileges at school in order to accomodate their faith. On the contrary, Christian students are told they must squelch their faith when they step foot over the threshold of the school door." Bug guote.
Matthew chapter 6, versus 5 thru 8 cover this matter.
The matter isn't covered quite that simply.

Matthew 6:5-8 is Jesus teaching on prayer. This is taken from the King James Version of The Expositors Study Bible. Explanation is written in parenthesis.
V5 " And when you pray (the necessity of prayer), you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men (they do it for show). Verily I say unto you, They have their reward (meaning that there will be no reward from God in any capacity.
V6 But you (sincere Believer) when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray in secret to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly (the word "closet" is not to be taken literally, but means that our prayers must not be done for show; if we make God's interests our own, we are assured that He will make our interest His Own).
V7 But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do (repeating certain phrases over and over, even hundreds of times); for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. (they will not be heard by God). Be not you therefore like unto them; for your Father (Heavenly Father) knows what things you have need of, before you ask Him (He is omniscient, meaning that He knows all things, past, present, and future).

How do you reconcile those scriptures with the parable Jesus taught in Luke 18:9-14? He used the prayers of two men, a Pharisee and a Publican, the Pharaisee prayed inside the Temple the Publican outside the Temple. The Pharisee was self-righteous and prayed for show, to be heard of men and to insult the Publican, and was rejected by God. The Publican prayed an humble prayer and was exhalted by God. Both prayed in public.

I'm sure that the lawmakers weren't trying to force the Christians to obey the Bible when they removed prayer and Bible reading from the schools, and the Ten Commandments and nativity scenes from public places.