WAXAHACHIE, Texas AP — A hush fell over the stadium as football players, cheerleaders and band members from both teams made their way to the end zone. Then, although people in the stands could not actually hear it, the students on the Waxahachie High field recited the Lord's Prayer.
"If we want to pray, we ought to be able to pray," said Martha Howell, whose son is a football coach here. "And we sure do need it."
Since the terrorist attacks, school districts and local governments seem to be blurring — some say crossing — the line between church and state.
Lawmakers have urged Americans to pray, and some students are doing so openly in class. Many schools have had clergy-led assemblies.
"I think you're going to see more Americans not putting up with those secularists trying to make the public square a religion-free zone," said Richard D. Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the Nashville, Tenn.-based Southern Baptist Convention.
Some groups say such displays violate the Constitution's prohibition against government establishment of religion.
In Waxahachie, about 50 miles south of Dallas, residents say the recitation of the Lord's Prayer by students is voluntary and does not violate the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year that pre-game prayer is unconstitutional.
In Maryville, Tenn., the school board has voted to revive a custom that ended in 1998 and open its meetings with prayer, because "we need to take a stand for what is right," member Don Talbott said.