ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Cox News Service
SUPPORTERS OF THREE AMENDMENTS allowing prayer in public school - including one co-sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke - told Congress what they think about the issue.
Children in public schools are made to feel ashamed of their religion, Anna Doyle, a mother of six, told a Congressional panel Tuesday.
Freedom of religion has become ``freedom from religion,'' she said, testifying in favor of a proposed school prayer constitutional amendment.
Three versions of such an amendment were discussed at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, including one introduced last week by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas.
Armey's proposal intends to protect religious freedom ``including the right of students in public schools to pray without government sponsorship or compulsion.''
Armey stepped in after Reps. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Ernest Istook, R-Okla., could not come to an agreement over their competing proposals.
The school prayer amendment offered by Istook explicitly allows ``student-sponsored prayer in public schools.'' The other, by Hyde, focuses more broadly on ``religious freedoms,'' but supporters say it will allow for school prayer and could pave the way for school vouchers.
Betty stuff follows:
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, co-sponsored the Hyde Amendment and serves on the Constitution subcommittee.
He said the testimony he heard Tuesday raised questions about what the Armey amendment would accomplish. Goodlatte wants to make sure it does what he and others intended when they first raised the issue.
"I hope it would ensure that religious expression in a public place would be entitled to the same protection other forms of speech are," Goodlatte said.
The Supreme Court's decision to declare singing religious songs at school unconstitutional convinced Goodlatte an amendment was needed.
"You can sing 'Frosty the Snowman,' but not 'Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,''' he said.
The average person doesn't consider Christmas and Hanukkah songs "the establishment of religion," Goodlatte said. He also pointed to the high court's rulings on prayer at graduations and religious displays on public property as other reasons he supports an amendment.
Congress could choose to forgo the amendment and enact laws clarifying the freedom of religion, but Goodlatte said simply passing laws might not be enough.
People are tired of "having the courts continually eroding religious freedom," he said.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, said the First Amendment ``has been distorted and used by some to undermine the free speech of people of faith.''
Sekulow joined Doyle and other witnesses Tuesday who favored some type of proposal citing examples of what they called ``religious censorship.''
The Rhode Island mother related one occasion when her daughter Katie ``came home in tears'' after a teacher at her public elementary school said Katie's favorite book - ``Jesus My Love'' - was against the law. On another, a teacher took away rosaries Katie had made from nylon cord and given to two friends.
``The children learn from this to keep their faith hidden, and in doing so, they lose their faith,'' she said.
However, Rep. Maxine Waters, D.-Calif., said the issue is ``not as simple as talking about a rosary.''
She gave her own family as an example. ``We believe Jesus was black, '' she said. If my son gave pictures of a black Jesus to the kids in his elementary school ``all hell would break loose.''
Those opposing the measure said it was unnecessary and could cause conflict between religious groups.
The amendment would ``turn school playgrounds into legal battlegrounds and divide children and families of different religious beliefs,'' said Anne Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association.
Of particular concern in the Armey amendment is language that has been interpreted as a mandate for taxpayer support of religious programs.
``This amendment would require the government to subsidize religion, entangling church and state and raising the specter of government restrictions on religious activity,'' said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Staff writer Betty Hayden Snider contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB