# how did "school prayer" work? why isn't it done as spontaneous civil disobedience?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-school-prayer-work-why-isnt-it-done-as-spontaneous-civil-disobedience/542012>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 5, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-school-prayer-work-why-isnt-it-done-as-spontaneous-civil-disobedience/542012 "2010-06-05T02:42:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-school-prayer-work-why-isnt-it-done-as-spontaneous-civil-disobedience/542012/61 "2010-06-09T12:56:23Z")

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> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#):
>
> Most people know very well what would happen if they made any sort of fuss about school-sponsored religion.

Let’s teach them about the power of Jesus’s love, by death threats!

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**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-school-prayer-work-why-isnt-it-done-as-spontaneous-civil-disobedience/542012/62 "2010-06-09T16:00:03Z")

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I just received a glurge email that perfectly answers the OP’s question about civil disobedience. It concerns a graduation ceremony where, at the end of her speech, the valedictorian pretended to sneeze, and the rest of the audience very obediently said, “Bless you!”

Ha, that’s putting one over on all the people who don’t want school prayer, isn’t it?

I don’t believe this particular piece of glurge because, for one thing, I have never been to a high-school graduation that didn’t have some kind of invocation. Maybe it wasn’t Jesus-y enough for some in the audience but it was there.

Second, this whole thing had to be set up beforehand. If every single person in the class agreed to say “Bless you” instead of “Gesundheit” (which is what I’d say if somebody sneezed, if I said anything), they could have just agreed to have a straight-out prayer. After all, if every single person in the audience wanted it, or felt the lack of it would somehow hurt them, or even if they just didn’t mind, then who was going to tell the Supreme Court on them, and what if they did?

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