Putting Christian Prayer Back into Australian State Schools
While living in the United States, I worked as an occupational therapist in the Virginia Beach City Schools, Virginia, for ten years (1987 to 1997).
During that time I observed serious moral decline in those schools, which was reflective of what was happening across American society, after public prayer and the Ten Commandments were taken out of the public schools in 1962 and 1980 respectively.
When I returned to Australia in August 1999, I observed that this moral decline was also taking place in Australian schools. I developed a burden to see “prayer put back into the schools.” In one sense prayer has never been taken out of the schools. As one teacher said, “As long as there are tests, students will pray.”
But public prayer as an integral part of public education has been banned in deference to ”multiculturalism,“ even though Australia has a Christian constitution. In some states in Australia we have the privilege of teaching Religious Education classes. The Scripture Union, Miracle Education, chaplains, and many other organizations also work with students, so public prayer has not been completely expelled from the schools.
As an intercessor, I have attended hundreds of adult prayer meetings, but my association with the Children’s Prayer Network (from 2001) inspired me to raise up children to pray. While researching for my book, Let the Children (2007), which features the story of the Children’s Prayer Network, I observed how God has always used children. I remember reading how Esther Ilnisky, founder of the Children’s Global Prayer Movement, asked God, “Where are the intercessors for this sore world?”
“Turn to the children,” God replied. “They will pray; they will intercede; they will cry out for the lost; they will not give up till the answer comes” (page 135). Ilnisky believes God has placed in every child a desire to pray. It is up to parents and their teachers to release and mentor that desire.
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Comments
Putting Christian Prayer Back into Australian State Schools | Kotlowski Enterprises is really a nicely put together blog. I dont believe my web-site http://best-kindle.info/magazines-for-kindle/ has a lot in common with yours, though I can (and have) learnt quite a bit from you, cheers, Tim Wicks
Oh that I could bang a few drums and bring the Lamb back into the schools. I couldn’t endorse your sentiments and agree with your prayers more. The battle is fierce, but the power of God’s love is even more so!