URL: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5936
Collection Structure Firing Line broadcast records >  Episode guide >  Prayer in the Public Schools
Item Title Prayer in the Public Schools
Collection Title Firing Line broadcast records
Guest Pike, James A. (James Albert) (1913-1969)
Host Buckley, William F., Jr. (1925-2008)
Date Created April 06, 1966
Description Bishop Pike was thought of as the wild man of the Episcopal Church (by this time he had been put on trial for heresy, though he had emerged still wearing the Episcopal purple), but on this show he is genial and persuasive on the subject of school prayer specifically and the First Amendment generally. JAP: "I think [the Supreme Court Justices] use the First Amendment in a way it was never intended to be used. [The Founding Fathers] talked about establishment of religion. And they meant, really, establishment like the Church of England is. ... It was forbidding the federal agency, the Congress, from interfering with the existing states' establishment." ... "I personally do not see the value of state-prescribed prayer or of the reading of the Bible, for instance, without study of the background, the context, the thoughtful criticism of the passages, in school. And I think it's a disservice to the Church, too, because it gives parents the illusion that this side of life is being covered by the public agency when, in fact, it's very trivial and perfunctory."
Subject(s) Prayer in the public schools United States
Language(s) English
Country of Origin United States
Place Recorded New York City, New York, United States
Dimensions Duration: 50 minutes
Format Moving Image
Medium television programs
Aspect Ratio 4:3
Aspect Ratio 4:3
Color black and white
Color black and white
Soundtrack sound
Soundtrack sound
Hoover ID Program 002
Record Number 80040.2
Notes Video available through Amazon.
Collection Guide https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6m3nc88c
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