School Prayer

Does a nondenominational school prayer, recited at the start of the day's classes, breach the constitutional separation between church and state? A group of New Hyde Park, N.Y., parents thought it did, took their complaint to court. Last week the state's highest judicial body, the Court of Appeals, rejected the parents' reasoning by a 5-2 vote. To call the nonsectarian prayer unconstitutional, said one majority opinion, would be "to stretch the so-called separation of church and state doctrine beyond reason."

The prayer in question, intended by the state's Board of Regents to avoid just such legal controversies: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessing upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country."

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