Paducah, Kentucky. Jonesboro, Arkansas. Springfield, Oregon. And now Littleton, Colorado. Sadly, school shootings have become an all too common element of American society. Sadder still is when we cease to be surprised that a school shooting has taken place, and are instead shocked by how many were killed.

In the wake of the Littleton massacre, our president has asked us to pray for those involved in the shootings. How can he ask us to pray when prayer has been banned from schools? Prayer is banned on the pretense that we must not offend atheists or those of other religions. Now that our students are dying, who is offended?

It was 1962 when school prayer was removed from the classroom because of a prayer composed by the New York State Board of Regents. Although the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Engel v. Vitale allowed for individual and personal prayer in public schools, it prohibited the state officials from requiring that a school prayer be said at the beginning of each day. The Board had composed the following prayer: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our Country."

This act of leading students in prayer was ruled unconstitutional, even if the prayer was denominationally neutral and pupils who wish to do so may remain silent or be excused from the room while the prayer is being recited (Engel v. Vitale, p. 422-436).

In 1963, the Abington v. Schempp case removed Bible reading from public schools. Consider this quotation from the court transcripts: "If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be, and had been psychologically harmful to the child." We have chosen physical harm over a false pretense of psychological harm.

Bible reading was then removed despite the fact that at that time a survey showed that ninety-seven percent of the population believed in God. It was the first time in American history that three percent had become a majority (David Barton, America's Godly Heritage).

The three cases in 1962 and 1963 that removed school prayer and Bible reading from our public schools cited no legal or historical basis for their decisions. Without legal precedent or godly reason, they turned from the accepted godly norm. This led to the rapid removal of all Christianity from public schools. Through our actions, our nation began saying, "we don't want any association with the righteous heritage of the United States." Instead, we have chosen to build our nation upon decadence, deception and violence -- we're reaping the things we've sown.

In 1965, the court ruled in Reed v. Van Hoven that it was unconstitutional to pray out loud in school. In 1980, the case of Stone v. Graham had the Ten Commandments removed from the classroom walls. This is what the court said: "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey the Commandments. However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective." They certainly achieved their desired end. Our students are no longer influenced by God's command, "Thou shalt not kill"!

The results of this nation's rejection of God are astounding. In addition to the obvious increase in school violence, teen pregnancies, and abortion, there has also been a change in academic excellence. After the removal of Christian principles from the schools in 1963, SAT scores dropped drastically for an unprecedented eighteen years straight. Previously, there had never been a decline for more than two years in a row.

However, around 1974 and 1975, the drop began to level off, and eventually began to rise again. It is interesting to note that it was also around 1974 and 1975 that there was an explosion of religious schools. With nearly 8.5 million students enrolled in Christian schools in 1984, the SAT level began to rise again. It was estimated that students enrolled in these Christian schools had SAT scores of nearly one hundred points higher than that of the public school students, the same level as before 1963 when God was still allowed in our schools. In 1984, 12.4 percent of our nation's students were enrolled in Christian schools. That 12.4 percent went on to produce 39.2 percent of the nation's academic elite.

The fruit of the path our government and educational system have taken is now being seen. We cannot expect to reject God and not bear the consequences. The government and educational system have laid the foundation of atheism and evolution, instead of God and creationism. The result is the loss of value placed on human life. Without God, human life is lowered to the place where immorality becomes normal and death becomes insignificant. Why should our students value life when they have been shown it's all right to kill thirty-five to forty million babies?

In the words of George Washington: "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles." Today, godlessness is promoted and righteousness scorned. Thomas Jefferson had a similar idea when he said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of government, is because Christianity is the only religion in the world that deals with the heart."

The only way to see a change in our schools is to welcome God back into the educational system. When prayer is welcomed and God's commands are placed back on the wall, God will return. But for now, we must wait to see the writing on the wall.

Copyright © 1999 Eternal Hope Ministries, Inc., P.O. Box 466, Ellerslie, MD 21529. www.ehope.com. Not-for-profit use and/or reproduction of this material is encouraged, providing attribution is given and all copies are in its entirety.