re what part of no don t you understand in apr midway uchicago edu eeb quads uchicago edu e elizabeth bartley writes i can certainly see opposing the amen but that doesn t require opposing a moment of silence i already responded to this on one dimension but afterthoughts cause me to make another independent reply the problem with a moment of silence is that it is not an even handed way of allowing for religion amongst students in the public schools as i noted before muslims need more than a moment of silence in order to perform the prayers they are required by muhammad to do and at least orthodox jewish prayer also has requirements that are not addressed by this there is in fact a highly selective bias towards christian prayer in this moment of silence shit and that is especially bizarre in that christian prayer doesn t need this stuff a christain may pray totally incognito at any time to some extent this is true of muslims and jews as well what i intend in my first paragraph is that there are some characteristic forms of prayer in these religions which do need special times and or behavior which cannot be undertaken without an observer being able taking note of it a christian may pray at any time silently and without any trace of his activity being evident to others that may or may not be true of the other religious traditions amongst us certainly these tend to have some forms of prayer that would evidence differences from american protestant mainstream religion all that a moment of silence does is to allow that one tradition which doesn t need it to have a special place set aside in the public schools there is nothing in christian prayer that requires public forms or rugs or phylacteries or anything else at all visible to the outside world a christian student may and probably does pray at innumerable times during the day without anyone else knowing it that may also be true of non christians i am not claimng otherwise in the moment of silence it would still be difficult for the jews to gather and daven for the muslims to do their ablutions and find qiblah to mecca and engage in the prescribed forms but of course christians can do their thing and therefore the provision is nothing but a disguised attempt to encourage just that luckily there is a strong jewish presence in this country and i as a christian revere some of the jewish teachers i had in public schools and a growing muslim presence as well i can only hope that the political forces consequent on this will prevent the imposition of christian forms on non christians as far as i can see as a christian there is nothing in this moment of silence campaign but an attempt to use public social pressure to force children to adhere to a pattern that is biased towards christianity and as a christian i must protest such coercion for what it s worth i suspect that the coercion is not really targeted at the non christians it is yet another case of failure amongst christian parents in making their children prayerful so that they want the public schools to teach what they cannot manage to teach despite having all the opportunity in the world to do so if you have taught your children to pray they do not need a moment of silence in school if you have not managed to teach them the moment will only embarrass you give it up michael l siemon i say you are gods sons of the mls panix com most high all of you nevertheless or you shall die like men and fall mls ulysses att com like any prince psalm
