FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE . . .
By Allan R. Andrews
American Reporter Correspondent

WASHINGTON - The Lord's Prayer, also known as The Our Father, made it into the news a couple of weeks ago at a high school commencement in nearby Calvert County, Md., but much of the ensuing discussion of civil liberty and freedom of expression focussed more on words in the U.S. Constitution than those in the prayer.

According to the story filed by the Associated Press on May 28, a graduating senior who was opposed to the tradition of having prayer at the commencement exercises filed a complaint. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union and a ruling from the Maryland attorney general's office, he got county and school officials to agree instead to a 30-second moment of silence intended as a "time for reflection" without any mention of God.

The dissenting student argued that prayer doesn't belong in a public ceremony and violates the U.S. Constitution's proscription against agencies of the state "establishing" religion.

The tradition at the school had continued because of what many saw as a "loophole" in the Supreme Court's ruling against school prayer that permitted such religious activities as long as they were student led and student initiated.

When a 17-year-old female student designated to lead the invocation rose in front of her graduating class and the 4,000 people at the ceremony and asked for the moment of silence, it appeared all was calm and orderly.

But then someone in the audience began reciting aloud the Lord's Prayer, and before he reached the words "hallowed be thy name" he was joined by many in the audience.

When the story was first related to me by a county school administrator, someone listening beside me asked, "Did they say debts or trespasses?" -- a question lost on those who were never taught the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples according to accounts in the New Testament gospels.

Though intended as a mild joke, the comment in a way goes to the heart of the public issue of trespassing on the rights of the neighbor and the community.

When the mass prayer began, the young man who fought for the exclusion left the ceremony. When he tried to return to receive his diploma, he was barred by school officials and police. They enforced a school rule that anyone who leaves a school assembly is not permitted to return.

The young man also was barred from attending a later class social event for which he had paid. Trespasses seem to mount in this story.

A woman in the audience claimed those who recited the prayer did so orderly and reverently.

Another young student with whom I spoke observed that the recitation of the prayer was boisterous and belligerent.
A young man I know who attended the ceremony was oblivious to what was going on and missed the spontaneous prayer and the dissenter's leaving the assembly.

Unconfirmed rumor suggested the man who initiated the mass prayer was a local clergyman.

Police and some school officials claim the young man who left the ceremony was rude, disruptive and obnoxious during his attempts to return after the prayer and as he attempted to re-enter through several other paths.

Ideological demonstrations are never perceived exactly alike by those on opposite sides of an issue nor by their intended audiences.

Conservative columnist Cal Thomas, who called the spontaneous prayer "quite remarkable," suggested the incident provided an example of "the 'virtue' empire striking back at the ravenously and increasingly secularized culture that seems powerless to stem the Godforsaken tide of violence and corruption among us."

Calvert County school superintendent James Hook had a less grandiose perspective on the audience takeover of the ceremony.
``A moment of silence should have been respected,'' Hook told the Associated Press. ``It shows disrespect for the young lady who asked for silence and for the young man who requested that the prayer not be done.''

The most important words in the prayer appear to chide both sides of the controversy: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

My reading of this story sees lots of real and potential trespassing:

The young man and the ACLU may have trespassed on the traditional standards of the community.

The attorney general may have trespassed on the authority of the local school board.

School authorities and the police certainly seem to have trespassed on the young man's right to take part in his graduation ceremony and its accompanying social event.

The praying crowd -- perhaps exercising some demagoguery as part of Thomas's "virtue" empire -- trespassed on the sincere sensitivity of the young woman who requested a quiet time of reflection. They also trespassed on the young man's right to dissent.

I think I detect several individuals trespassing on the wishes of the group and several groups trespassing on the wishes of the individual.

We may have evidence of the capital, be it in Washington or Annapolis, trespassing on bucolic southern Maryland.

One can glean from the incident the majority trespassing against the minority and the minority trespassing against the majority.

What appears missing from the tales of the incident and the ensuing discussion is what Jesus called for in his model prayer, an overriding urgency toward forgiveness.