“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."
~ Psalm 119:105
Nearly 100 students took their
seats onstage of the lively auditorium. They
looked almost as grown up as they felt - heads held high, chests puffed out,
proud to be finally done with those difficult high school years. Dads swallowed hard; Moms brushed away tears.
Today was unusually somber.
For the first time in the school’s 80 year history, student-led prayer
would not be allowed. With help from the
ACLU, Natasha Appenheimer’s family filed suit to exclude the traditional invocation
and benediction prayers.
Angered by decision, many found unique ways of protesting
the judge's ruling. Students organized a
prayer vigil around the school's flagpole. Some 50 seniors clasped hands in a circle
while about 150 underclassmen and members of the community encircled them.
Several students decorated their mortarboards with religious
slogans: "I'm praying now," "One nation under God," and
"I’m still praying today." One
parent distributed homemade wooden crosses to the students.
Educators and students cautiously spoke within the court’s guidelines,
offering no mention of Divine guidance. The
audience booed Natasha when she received her diploma. No one blessed the graduating seniors.
When it was his turn to speak, Ryan Brown walked confidently
toward the microphone, bowing briefly in silent prayer. As his form of protest, (he’d worked this out in
advance with some friends) he feigned a sneeze at the podium.
Everyone played their assigned roles to perfection. In unison, they cried out "God bless you!"
The audience stood; applauding loudly. Ryan replied: "Don't congratulate me,
applaud for God!" He left the stage having found a brilliant way to invoke
God's blessing on their future with or without the court's approval.
The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school-sponsored prayers at
graduation in 1992 (Lee v. Weisman). But prayer doesn’t have to be banished from
the graduation experience altogether.
Many communities hold Baccalaureate services during
graduation weekend with as many prayers as they choose. Students and teachers are free to attend or
not.
It’s also possible that a student speaker at graduation will
offer a prayer. But under current law,
such prayers are only legal if the student speaker was chosen by neutral
criteria and given primary control of their speech (i.e., not reviewed or
edited by the school).
But God knows, the best way to allow prayer at graduation is
to let people choose for themselves what, if any, prayers they want to pray by
putting a “moment of silence” on the program.
Father, thank You for our time together, for
all the friends we’ve made, for the days of laughter and fun, and for all the
times of great discovery and learning.
Thank you too for all who have given of their energy and skill so that
we can graduate. Amen
