Fob's Prayer

Bringing God back to school

For 20 years, state and local lawmakers have tried to skirt U.S. Supreme Court decisions barring prayer in public schools. One of the most direct challenges to the court came last week in Alabama, where Governor Fob James Jr. signed a bill allowing teachers to lead "willing" students in prayer. The bill recommended a prayer written by the Governor's son, Fob James III, 25, a Mobile attorney, in a spirit of patriotic ecumenism. It reads: "We acknowledge you as the Creator and Supreme Judge of the world. May your justice, your truth and your peace abound this day in the hearts of our countrymen, in the counsels of our government, in the sanctity of our homes and in the classrooms of our schools. In the name of our Lord, amen."

Lobbying for the bill were the Moral Majority; Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly's conservative political-action group); Concerned Christians for Good Government; and, most prominently, Alabama's first family, led by First Lady Bobbie James. Some Alabamians irreverently describe the fervently religious Jameses as the "new trinity": "Fob the father, Fob the son and the holy host."

Opposition to the new law was sharp and quick. "Patently unconstitutional," declared Paul Hubbert, executive director of the Alabama Educational Association. Earl Potts of the Alabama Baptist Convention objected on different grounds. Said he: "We need prayer in the public schools, but I don't think the government should provide the prayer to be used. What legislators are not realizing is that the government could become more involved in prescribing what its citizens should be doing."

Alabama legislators voted overwhelmingly for the prayer bill. "It's an election year," observed Mary Weidner, executive director of the state American Civil Liberties Union. "They have a history of not wanting to grapple with the issues and turning to the federal courts to rescue them."

The establishment of an official prayer is only the latest step in Alabama's drive to bring religion back to the schools. A law passed in 1978 and broadened last year allows "silent meditation" or "voluntary prayer." Said Charlene Boyd, a Mobile elementary school teacher: "The children in my classroom were allowed, if they voluntarily chose to do so, to sing the following jingle: 'God is great, God is good,/ Let us thank him for our food./ Bow our heads, we are fed./ Give us, Lord, our daily bread.' " When Ishmael Jaffree, a Mobile attorney, discovered that his three grade school children were being led in such classroom prayer, he sued. Jaffree last week expanded his suit, challenging the constitutionality of Alabama's new law as well.

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