If you’re driving near the Richland County schools in South Carolina, you may come across these bizarre signs on the side of the road reading “School Prayer Zone.” They look like actual highway signs suggesting — who knows — that prayer is legal in that area?
Those signs also include a Bible verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14, that says if you pray, God “will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
They were put up by a group called Christ Teens, with the permission of the state’s Department of Transportation, which says everything is legal because the signs are on private property and technically off of the highway property that they oversee. It’s the Christian equivalent of someone shoving a finger near your face and saying, “I’m not touching you.”
Why are these $714 signs necessary?
“We want this next generation coming out of our public schools every 365 days to be productive citizens with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, skills, and ability,” [said Vanessa Frazier, founder and director of Christ Teens]. “You know, everything you would want from a graduation class.”
To aid in that mission, Frazier said daily prayer is needed.
“These signs will hopefully encourage people to pray morning, day, and night for our teachers, students, and parents,” she said.
Assuming the signs are legal, there’s still no good reason to put them up.
Frazier falsely implies people can’t pray near schools — or inside schools — even though they have always been able to do that. Also, if she wants “productive citizens,” then prayer sure as hell isn’t going to help. That’s like telling students they can get higher SAT scores by rubbing a rabbit’s foot before class. This is South Carolina. There’s no shortage of prayers in the state. They haven’t helped. By one count, South Carolina ranks 43rd in the nation in education.
Maybe the better question is what the reaction would be if atheists or Satanists or Muslims put up signs urging students to think for themselves since God isn’t going to help. If they followed the same procedure as these Christians, would their signs be seen as welcome encouragement for students or anti-religious blasphemy?
It’s just another way for Christians to shove their beliefs in people’s faces instead of doing anything that would actually help students — like pushing for more teacher pay or demanding higher academic standards. Much like offering “thoughts and prayers” after a mass shooting, these signs are just a way for Christians to pretend they’re helping without doing anything useful.
(Screenshot via WIS. Thanks to Brian for the link)