Let's Talk About Prayer

Dartboard has stood by and let many an Undergraduate Council debate rage this week, much to our own amusement. Yet in the course of vapid jousting over perennial "pressing student concerns," we have become increasingly alarmed at another aspect of the elections. Sadly, it was not the content of these debates that has led us to speak out, nor a particular allegiance to any of the candidates.

As a campus, we have stood by as the language of debate has changed, and Dartboard is not so dewy-eyed to be disappointed by mere wishy-washy non-committal phrases like "forging community" and "driving values." Such, it seems, is the fate of popular election rhetoric. No, Dartboard is not complaining about that this time. This time it's about something that's a little like religion, a little like meditation and a little like compassion.

Like, a prayer.

There are students praying for candidates, students lambasting those praying, candidates decrying e-mails from peers praying for them and others arguing that how and for whom they pray should not be an issue. Dartboard has one simple answer: get the issue out into the open.

Some do it, some don't and most don't want to hear about it. Praying for a candidate? Irked that somewhere out there someone might be praying for you? It's called religious toleration--take heed. As for those who decide to reach out and pray for someone, Dartboard must defer to Miss Manners. The separation of church and state is like seating intensely interesting dinner guests: best not to sit the two close together and risk that they become totally absorbed in each other to the detriment of the entire party.