is silence secular?
A mandatory moment of silence for Texas schoolchildren has a secular purpose of encouraging thoughtful contemplation and does not advance or inhibit religion, a federal judge said this week in a ruling upholding the 2003 state law. U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn of Dallas ruled in a lawsuit brought by a North Texas couple who objected to the law as an unconstitutional promotion of religion.
In her opinion, issued Thursday, Lynn said “there is no doubt” several legislators, including the bill’s author, Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, expressed a purpose to “put prayer back in schools.”
But legislative debate also focused on other ways students could spend the 60 seconds.
Read about it here.
[From me]
Interesting topic. I’m curious what my atheist friends think about this. If all you are doing is asking for students to be silent–how is that prayer? As a former teacher I would have enjoyed 60 seconds of silence. 
What do you think?
I think it’s a good ruling. I think the minute of silence is indeed a back-door attempt to get prayer back in the school, but I don’t think that that motive is enough to rule it as prayer and therefore disallow it.
On the other other hand, I think that anyone can pray silently pretty much any time they wish. There’s no need to set apart a certain minute for it. If the minute of silence is truly not for any particular purpose, then I would want the school board to consider that it might be a silly, arbitrary action, akin to requiring children to roll their thumbs for one minute, that provides no benefit and has no place in a classroom.
What do some of the legal experts on this site (tex? olm?) think about how this ruling will affect Texas case law?
Interesting question! I think the ‘rub’ for the mandatory moment of silence may originate in the fact that once a moment of ‘prayer’ was nixed by the courts, the schools said, ‘Ok, then we’ll substitute a moment of silence.’ By all practical accounts in their minds silence = prayer. So I’m sure that’s where the opposition to a moment of silence has come from.
Have the moment of SILENCE…
The teacher needs it if no one else does…..
I’m with Kevin on this one.
I’m just waiting for the kid who’s smart enough to challenge the rule by saying their prayer requires chanting of “naaaa, nanananaaaa, nananana, nanana, nananaaa” or the rhythmic beat of erasers on a wooden desk and thus “silence” is a violation of their rights and puts an undue burden on their emotional and spiritual health.
Looking forward to reading about that one.
I can see where someone might get the idea that it promotes religion, but it’s not logical. Just a bunch of crying people looking for a little attention.
Silence and introspection are as important as physical exercise. I think it’s a great idea to include it in schools. I can see the ulterior motive behind it for people who’d like to have prayer in schools but I think that it’s constitutionally sound and, on the whole, a beneficial exercise.
People concerned about state sponsorship of religious ideals should take it at face value but be prepared to step in should a government-endorsed teacher ever happen to suggest that children face toward Mecca and worship Allah or meditate on the teachings of the Buddha or pray to Jesus.
As an aside, I noticed that the article also mentioned the children are required to make pledges of allegiance to both the US and Texas flags. I’ve never been able to get my head around that; it’s the kind of thing North Koreans are made to do. Talk about indoctrination.
I think I’m going to be silent on this one out of principle!
…your 60 seconds is up. Feel free to speak again!
The judge was right in pointing out that many of the bill’s sponsors had a clear intent of having a time for prayer in the schools. The legislators who pushed for it are people who believe that America is a Christian nation and that we ought to have prayer in schools.
I don’t have a problem with a nonspecific moment of silence, but, for what it’s worth, I can report that the children I teach at church HATE the moment of silence.
Those students have no clue what the intent may have been from the legislature. Silence is golden. I’m sure TIA’s students hate silence because our society hates it.
I think they hate it because it means they have to sit still and be quiet!
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