A member of the Georgia House of Representatives has introduced a bill that would allow public school students to recite a prayer ending in the words “We ask these blessings through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
State Rep. Sharon Henderson (D-Newton and Rockdale counties) mandates that the prayer take place just before recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. It states that a student may offer the prayer and that others may participate.
Henderson, who pastors a Christian church, was elected to the state House in November.
If the bill, H.B. 547, were to become law, it would almost certainly be challenged in court and declared unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down school-sponsored prayer nearly 60 years ago in the case Engel v. Vitale.
