Our Founding Fathers, fresh off the European experience of mixing the affairs of government and religion and the many evils caused by it, included as the very first clause in the Bill of Rights what has come to be known as the Establishment Clause. The clause prohibits government from setting up a state religion or interfering with people practicing religion as they see fit.

In the early days of the country, the Establishment Clause did not cause much controversy because nearly everyone was a Protestant Christian. The line between church and state was blurred fairly regularly, but because the overwhelming majority of Americans shared very similar religious views, no one much objected.

But as Americans became more diverse in their religious faiths, various government practices came under challenge. Ironically, some of the early litigation under the Establishment Clause in the latter part of the 19th century was brought not by atheists but, by Catholics objecting to various Protestant practices in public schools.

But it was a series of decisions by the Supreme Court in the early 1960s that declared prayer in public schools to be unconstitutional that set off a cultural war that continues to be waged today. Based on the controversy in recent weeks over a number of different instances of public prayer, we appear to be no closer to resolving this issue than when the Supreme Court handed down those early decisions.

I have a proposal I would like to advance which I think can put this issue to rest once and for all: Let's stop praying in public. Now I suspect that many religious people may find my suggestion shocking, but I have some pretty good authority for the proposition.

Chapters 5-7 of the Gospel according to Matthew record Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon, Jesus gives a lesson on praying (see Matthew 6:5-13). At the end of the lesson he gives us a sample prayer, which we now know as the Lord's Prayer and which is probably the most famous passage from the Bible.

However, immediately before the Lord's Prayer, Jesus has some other things to say about prayer that are cited much less frequently:

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

I will concede that there are other Scriptures that, at least inferentially, sanction group or communal prayer. But Jesus' lesson seems at a minimum to admonish us that when we pray, it should be for the purpose of entering a communion with our Creator and not to put on a show for other human beings within earshot.

It is hard for me to see how reading a written prayer over a public-address system at a football game would not more likely fall into that latter category. After all, I am pretty sure the PA system is not being used to make sure God can hear the prayer.

However, I do not want to impugn the motives of those who choose to continue to pray in public, as has recently been done by a number of other commentators. For one of the other lessons from the Sermon on the Mount, and which is similarly more often honored in its breach, is "judge not, lest you be judged."

But I think my proposal is worthy of consideration. It certainly would put to rest a public controversy that has dogged our country for decades. If you are a believer in the Bible, an added benefit would be that we would apparently have a lot more prayers answered. And with all of the challenges our country is facing, I think we all can agree that we could use a few more answered prayers.

King is a frequent contributor to Outlook. His email address is BKing@weking.net.