Overview
In This Provocative work, Frank S. Ravitch redirects the heated debate over prayer in the public schools. He asserts that current legal discourse, which centers this controversial issue around First Amendment rights, underestimates the ways in which school prayer fosters discrimination against religious minorities and dissenters. Arguing that traditional Constitutional doctrine is inadequate to address the harmful effects of public school religious exercises, Ravitch looks to civil rights principles and anti-discrimination laws for an alternative approach. The author confronts the discrimination issue head-on, citing recent dramatic incidents of intimidation, harassment, and physical violence toward both religious minorities and those who oppose religious observances in the schools. He examines the legal, political, and social realities that create such occurrences, concluding that discrimination is likely to become more widespread, particularly as the religious right aggressively promotes the expansion of organized religious exercises in schools. Following a survey of current civil rights statutes and their limitations in dealing with this issue, Ravitch presents a drait of a statute that directly confronts this form of discrimination. This timely work offers fresh insights into the school prayer debate and it makes a strong case for viewing this controversial issue from a new perspective.
Full Product Details
Author: Frank S. Ravitch
Publisher: University Press of New England
Imprint: Northeastern University Press
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Width: 15.10cm
, Height: 2.20cm
, Length: 23.00cm
Weight: 0.404kg
ISBN: 9781555534776
ISBN 10: 1555534775
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 30 June 2001
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Awaiting stock
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.
Reviews
Ravitch challenges the student of church-state studies to view the issue of school prayer outside of the 'box' of constitutional jurisprudence and view the conundrum in light of the reality of discrimination that is perpetuated upon religious minorities. - Journal of Church and State; A clear, careful and sensitive account.... Frank Ravitch has written a fine book, one that offers a fair and thorough treatment of a difficult and vexing political and constitutional issue. - Law and Politics Book Review
Author Information
Frank S. Ravitch, Associate Professor at Barry University School of Law, is currently a Fulbright Scholar at the Faculty of Law at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.
