Does Prayer Belong at School Board Meetings?

The new battleground in religious freedom isn’t taking place in the streets, the halls of Congress, or even church pews – it’s at your local school board meeting. 

In school boards big and small, the battle of whether to pray (as well as who gets to pray) is playing out across the country.

The most recent front is Arizona, where a bill was introduced in the Arizona legislature that would allow school board members to pray during meetings. And recent discussions for that bill were all over the place, delving into topics such as the Pledge of Allegiance, Satanism, and even land acknowledgements. 

Should prayer be allowed at school board meetings? And why does this matter, anyway?

The Arizona Bill

State Rep. Teresa Martinez authored AZ House Bill 2110, which would allow any school board member to pray “during the meeting of a governing body.” The bill was in response to recent challenges to prayers in school boards across the country, which have come under increasing scrutiny from religious freedom watchdogs.

“We pray in the House. We pray in the Senate. We pray in Washington, D.C. We pray in city council meetings. We pray in county meetings,” Rep. Martinez observed. “The only place that we are not allowed to pray – statewide, uniformly – is a school board.”

Martinez stated that school boards directly represent their God-fearing communities – and that means they should pray. And if you’re not a Christian?

“If you don’t love God, you don’t have to pray, you can walk out, you can sit quietly, you don’t have to be there,” she said.

The conversation quickly took some strange turns, however – including into the realm of Satanic prayers and land acknowledgements.

This extended exchange is worth watching:

To Pray or Not to Pray?

What’s happening in Arizona is representative of quiet conversations taking place in small town local government across America. 

In California, the Chino Valley Unified School District is fighting a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court which said that opening school board meetings with prayer was a violation of the Establishment Clause. In Prosser, Washington, student representatives pushed back against a school board member who suggested opening meetings with a prayer. And across the country in Cabarrus, North Carolina, two school board members engaged in a heated discussion regarding praying before meetings - prompting one to ask, "How much God do you need?"

As Christians grow more emboldened to insert prayer into school board meetings, other faiths aren't rolling over in the face of their growing influence.

What Type of Prayer is Allowed?

Time and time again, for example, Satanists have sought to take advantage of policies allowing prayers or religious invocations before city council meetings, school board meetings, and even religious displays at state capitols.

RELATED: Satanic Holiday Display Destroyed, Beheaded in Iowa Capitol

And though Rep. Martinez said she was fine with Satanists giving prayers or invocations ahead of meetings, that’s often easier said than done. When Satanists do take up the offer, it’s often to mass uproar – sometimes leading to the decision by the governing body to end the prayer policy altogether. 

As debates like this continue to surface at school boards and other local governing bodies, they raise broader questions about how religious freedom is practiced in shared civic spaces, and where the line should be drawn on personal religious expression.

Is prayer at school board meetings a reflection of community values? And if prayers are allowed, shouldn’t minority faiths like Judaism and Islam be represented? What about Satanists, or even secular groups? 

What are your thoughts?