
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 12, 1990                   TAG: 9006120383
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AFTER THIS, THEREFORE BECAUSE OF THIS?

I SHOOK my head in disbelief when I read Tom Taylor's reply June 3 to your editorial "Church and state in county schools." He sees a cause-effect relationship between the outlawing of prayer in public schools and a rise in the dropout and pregnancy rates for unwed teens (not to mention a drop in SAT scores).

This arbitrary grouping of events is about as absurd as claiming that the civil-rights gains since 1962 resulted from the prayer ban, or that the decrease in SAT scores was due to escalation of the Vietnam War. Give us a little more credit than that.

Frankly, I never understood the prayer-in-school controversy. A recognition of the religious diversity of our nation demands that, if religion be taught in schools, equal time be given to all religions. This would of course leave no time for traditional school subjects; therefore, religion should be the concern of parents and the religious institutions, and not the public schools. JIM PROTZ ROANOKE

by CNB