A History of Public Prayer

Beginning this day – April 25 – in 1789, every session of the U.S. Senate has opened with prayer. This was a continuation of the Continental Congress’ practice during the Revolution, as Ben Franklin remarked in 1787: “In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection.”

The first Senate Chaplain was Bishop Samuel Provoost, who conducted George Washington’s Inaugural Service at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City. All 62 Senate Chaplains have been Christian, though leaders of other faiths have periodically been invited to offer prayer. The U.S. Senate Chaplain after World War II was Peter Marshall, who prayed: “Our liberty is under God and can be found nowhere else. May our faith be not merely stamped upon our coins but expressed in our lives.”

On February 7, 1984, President Reagan addressed the National Association of Secondary School Principals, saying: “God…should never have been expelled from America’s schools. As we struggle to teach our children…we dare not forget that our civilization was built by men and women who placed their faith in a loving God. If Congress can begin each day with a moment of prayer…so then can our sons and daughters.”

The wisdom of Phyllis Schlafly rings true, when she said on this subject in 1984: “All those who wrote the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment were educated in schools in which prayers were recited and the Bible was ready daily. From the founding of our country, those practices had never been seriously challenged.”

“The Supreme Court,” she continued, “has been widely criticized for handing down decisions so out of touch with American culture and traditions, and for pretending to discover a new meaning in the First Amendment which no one else had ever seen in the preceding 173 years. All public opinion polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of the American people oppose those decisions. Unfortunately, subsequent court cases have extended, rather than limited the effect of the Court’s decisions, and moral training of pupils has largely disappeared along with prayer.”

“The Supreme Court,” she continued, “has been widely criticized for handing down decisions so out of touch with American culture and traditions, and for pretending to discover a new meaning in the First Amendment which no one else had ever seen in the preceding 173 years. All public opinion polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of the American people oppose those decisions. Unfortunately, subsequent court cases have extended, rather than limited the effect of the Court’s decisions, and moral training of pupils has largely disappeared along with prayer.”