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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 13, 1995                   TAG: 9507130050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIENNA                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON PLUNGES INTO PRAYER FRAY

THE DEBATE over the right to pray in public school long has been dominated by Republicans. But President Clinton sought some mileage on the subject

Trying to outmaneuver Republicans on a politically charged issue, President Clinton ordered school-prayer guidelines distributed to the nation's schools Wednesday. ``Americans should never have to hide their faith,'' he declared.

Clinton complained that some Americans have been denied their right to express religious beliefs ``and that has to stop.''

The president's remarks appeared intended to take the steam out of a Republican drive for a constitutional amendment on religious liberty and to court support among religious Americans.

Specifically, Clinton directed the Education Department to issue guidelines on religious activities to the nation's 15,000 school districts before classes resume after summer.

Conservative groups accused Clinton of playing politics with religion, trying to appease Southern Democrats alienated by their party. They pledged to continue pressing for an amendment affirming broad religious protections, including the right to offer public expressions of faith in schools.

Liberals praised the president's address as clear evidence that there is no need to amend the Constitution.

Clinton said the First Amendment ``permits the American people to do what they need to do.''

``The First Amendment does not require students to leave their religion at the schoolhouse door,'' Clinton said in an address at James Madison High School in Vienna, a Northern Virginia suburb.

The speech was Clinton's latest attempt to move toward the political center, or, as he put it, to find common ground to address the nation's problems.

It also was another step in his long struggle to define the proper place of school prayer.

Last year, Clinton stunned civil liberties groups by suggesting he would not oppose a proposed constitutional amendment allowing school prayer. As governor, he had supported a moment of silence in schools as the best alternative to school prayer. The Arkansas law embracing that position was repealed in 1993.

by CNB