I am being overwhelmed with the need to dispel a lie that has grown wings and legs over the course of many decades.

It is that the U.S. Supreme Court “took prayer out of our public schools.” It did not do anything of the sort.

What the court ruled was that organized prayer sanctioned by an arm of government is an unconstitutional act.

The court made its ruling in 1962 in the Engel v. Vitale case. “One of the greatest dangers to the freedom of the individual to worship in his own way,” Justice Hugo Black wrote for the Court, “lay in the Government’s placing its official stamp of approval upon one particular kind of prayer or one particular form of religious services.”

The First Amendment to our Constitution states quite clearly that the government “shall make no law” that sanctions a particular religion.

So … what does that mean? The amendment doesn’t not limit government just to Congress, or just to county courthouses, or city halls. Any government entity, and that includes public school systems, must avoid ordering citizens to be indoctrinated into any specific religion.

I want to say as well that the amendment also declares that the government must not “prohibit the free exercise thereof” a religion. What I assume from that? I presume that citizens — and that includes public school students — are free to pray whenever and wherever they please.

I’ve heard it quipped over many years that “for as long as schools present final exams, students will be praying in school.”

So, let the students pray on their own without being forced to pray to a specific deity. I say this as a man of faith who believes with all my heart that religion should be taught at home and in our houses of worship … not in our public schools!