You'll often hear, especially in the Christmas season, conservative commentators claiming that "Christianity is under attack" from godless, secular liberals (no word yet on whether we religious liberals are taking part in this attack) who come to little towns and file lawsuits to enforce federal law. The claims usually revolve around someone complaining about a nativity scene on public grounds, or a school play involving mainly Christian themes, and an isolated incident gets blown up into a huge referendum on how Christians are aggrieved victims. But John Sides has flagged an interesting study that indicates a plurality of folks, particularly in the South, are ignoring Supreme Court rulings that prohibit prayer during public school activities: "The results show that more than half of the Southern schools in the sample do not comply with the Court’s decisions on graduation prayers and prayers at sporting events. A quarter of Southern schools don’t even comply with Engel v. Vitale. Graduation prayers are also common among schools outside the South." And thus, graph time:
It's very interesting to see how these Supreme Court decisions actually play out on the ground -- although anyone familiar with the slow path of desegregation is familiar with the phenomenon. But contra claims that ACLU lawyers are running around filing lawsuits to attack Christianity wherever they can, the data indicates that they haven't begun to tap into the number of anti-school prayer cases that are out there.
It's very interesting to see how these Supreme Court decisions actually play out on the ground -- although anyone familiar with the slow path of desegregation is familiar with the phenomenon. But contra claims that ACLU lawyers are running around filing lawsuits to attack Christianity wherever they can, the data indicates that they haven't begun to tap into the number of anti-school prayer cases that are out there. -- Tim Fernholz
