Majority in Missouri, Kansas Back Christian Prayer in Schools

As expected, Americans are sharply divided on the issue of prayer in schools, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center found. A majority of respondents in both Kansas and Missouri support for allowing explicitly Christian school prayers.

Among the other findings:

• Overall, 52 percent of respondents support allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus.
• Twenty-seven percent are strongly in favor of doing so.
• Forty-six percent of those surveyed oppose letting teachers lead their classes in such prayers.
• Twenty-two percent strongly oppose the idea.

“In 22 states, more adults say they favor allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus than say they oppose it,” Pew Research Associate Chip Rotolo wrote. “In 12 states and the District of Columbia, more adults say they oppose allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus than say they favor it.”

The 16 remaining states are divided, with no statistically significant differences in the shares who favor or oppose allowing teachers to lead their students in prayers that mention Jesus.

Support for explicitly Christian school prayer was highest in Mississippi (81 percent), followed by Alabama (75 percent), Arkansas (75 percent), Louisiana (74 percent), South Carolina (71 percent), Kentucky (67 percent), Oklahoma (67 percent), West Virginia (67 percent), Tennessee (66 percent), South Dakota (65 percent), Georgia (63 percent), North Carolina (61 percent), North Dakota (61 percent) and Texas (61 percent).

READ: NYC mayor said violence linked to lack of prayer in school

With the exception of North Carolina and Georgia, the states where support for explicitly Christian school prayer was the highest voted for Republican President Donald Trump by double digits in the 2024 presidential election. Smaller majorities of adults in Indiana (58 percent), Kansas (58 percent), Missouri (57 percent), Florida (56 percent), Delaware (56 percent), Nebraska (56 percent), Wyoming (56 percent), Idaho (55 percent), New Mexico (54 percent), Arizona (53 percent), Michigan (53 percent) and Ohio (53 percent) expressed support for allowing explicitly Christian school prayers.

Opposition to explicitly Christian school prayer was strongest in Washington, D.C. (69 percent), followed by Oregon (65 percent), Vermont (64 percent), Washington (61 percent), Connecticut (60 percent), New Hampshire (60 percent), Minnesota (59 percent), Massachusetts (58 percent), Colorado (58 percent), California (56 percent), Maine (55 percent), Utah (54 percent), Illinois (54 percent), New Jersey (53 percent) and New York (53 percent).

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice