J. Brent Walker is the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. I subscribe to their monthly bulletin, Report from the Capital. BJCRL is probably the most powerful Washington lobby that is dedicated solely to maintaining separation of church and state.

Brent Walker is an ordained Baptist minister, member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, and a professor at Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond. He is a sometimes columnist for the Washington Post, and appears often on panels at CBS News. Walker is obviously a bright, informed and respected professional.

Walker most often writes about the fine points of separation of church and state. Many times, with the support of Supreme Court opinions and with vital examples, he reminds his readers that separation of church and state is about keeping the state out of the business of churches, not about keeping churches or religious people out of the business of the state. The First Amendment of our Constitution says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

MARILENA STAUDENMAIER/For the Frontiersman Houston High School principal Mike Vrvilo chats with students.

I am a life-long Baptist and consider myself highly committed to following Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of my faith. Every day of my life I have been aware that my faith is to go with me. Never was I to leave my Christ behind. That meant that my Christ came with me not just to worship service on Sunday, but everywhere I went. (In my 81 years I have failed to attend Sunday worship less than five times. Each of those times was due to illness.) I have taken my Christ with me to athletic fields, board meetings, military service, the business arena, public grade and high schools and a state university.

Recently, Brent Walker wrote an op-ed piece published by the Washington Post. It was titled “How to Pray at School.” The short form of the message of the column was “let the kids pray and keep the school out of it.”

Walker used the popular, “See You at the Pole” program as an example of an on campus legal gathering of religious students. On a growing number of public high school campuses on the fourth Wednesday of September, a simple thing happens. At the school flag pole, or possibly some other convenient place on campus, religious students gather for prayer. Typically some prayers are audible; some are silent.

There are rules that govern the meetings. The rules have passed legal review and opinion.

First, the gathering must be student initiated and organized. The gathering cannot be an occasion for proselytizing or heckling. People of all religious traditions are to be welcomed. Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics, Muslims and Buddhists, are all welcome.

Second, no teacher or school staff member can be involved in the gathering. Adults outside the school personnel, such as parents or ministers, cannot be involved.

Third, organizers have an obligation to inform schools officials of the time and place of the event.

Fourth, school officials have a responsibility to set reasonable guidelines for the gathering. For example, the gathering is not to interfere with school class schedules.

The purpose of the column that Brent Walker wrote was not the promotion of “See You at the Pole.” The message of the column, as earlier cited, was to say “Let students pray. Keep the school out of it. Here are the rules.”

Responses to Walker’s column poured in via e-mail. The responses came from across the political spectrum from liberal to rigid Fundamentalists. I read dozens of the hundreds of responses. Almost all of the responses were vitriolic toward Walker. I have never seen such a collection of comments that missed the mark. I read the article and saw it as a well-reasoned piece by a thoroughly competent authority.

If I were a high school student, I would eagerly join the crowd around the pole. I would join in not because I believe the prayers will change the mind of God and save the world, but because kids with deep religious convictions need opportunity to claim their religious freedom in the most public arenas of life.

In American public life, we regularly put our commitment to our country into concrete forms. We recite the Pledge of Allegiance. We sing our national anthem. We sing “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful.” I fear unbridled patriotism. I am glad that when we recite the Pledge of Allegiance that the words “under God” are included.

For America to be healthy, the nation needs healthy religions. We dare not interpret separation of church and state as an exclusion of religion from public life. The courts of our land have done a commendable job of setting the rules. Schools, other public bodies, and religious people and institutions need to master the rules, and act responsibly.

Encouraging our young people to take their religion to school is an excellent idea.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.