A Mountain View man has started a petition to make prayer legal at high school football games.
In a news release, Pastor Brian Ingalls said he has drafted an online petition — the “Restoring Free Exercise of Prayer Petition” — that calls for a constitutuional convention to consider the following amendment:
“Declares that to secure the people’s right to the free practice of religion, neither the United States nor any state shall prohibit the right of people to pray on public or private grounds, or prohibit the right of elected, representative bodies of the United States or any state, county, or municipality, including elected school boards, to officially request and allow a person to pray during public or private assemblies.”
Today’s current law was shaped in 1992 by “Lee vs. Weisman.” The Supreme Court ruled that prayer at graduation was the equivalent of the government coercing someone to support and participate in religious exercise.
In 2000, the ruling extended to high school football games. In the case of “Santa Fe vs. Doe,” the Supreme Court ruled schools cannot ask students to lead a prayer over the loudspeakers at the football field. Most schools have obeyed the court’s ruling, especially after the Department of Education issued a threat in 2003 to remove school funding from those who did not.
“The time-honored tradition of a prayer before a football game, is typically a thing of the past,” Ingalls said.
According to the Constitution, Article 5, if the legislatures from two-thirds of the states call for a Constitutional Convention to propose one or more amendments, those amendments may then be sent back to the states for ratification. Ingalls said it is this process that his petition seeks to set in motion.
Previous amendments to school prayer have failed. But Ingalls believes he has an unique approach.
“It’s specific and focused for one thing,” he explained. “It doesn’t speak in broad general terms that might be abused later. It simply allows representative bodies like a Congress or a school board to ask someone to pray at an assembly — like for instance, a football game. And secondly, this petition is trying to pass an amendment through the states which has never been done before.”
Ingalls pointed out that all previous amendments to the Constitution have first been approved by Congress, then gone to the states for ratification. By contrast, his petition asks the Missouri General Assembly to pursue the second method for amending the Constitution, which he says would bypass Washington altogether.
“In my opinion, an amendment like this wouldn’t have a chance in Washington,” Ingalls said. “But as a citizen of Missouri, why not petition my state representatives? Perhaps we can tap on the brakes of the trend toward less religious freedom in America.”