Whatever justification there may be for it, but the fact is that broad sections of the American people, and of people all over the world, see the attempt to suppress the brief non-denominational Regents Prayer as an attempt to eradicate religion, even G-d’s Name, from Public School education and thus also from the personal lives of the vast majority of American children, inasmuch as their character, personality, world outlook, etc. are largely formed in the Public Schools.
With the exception of a small number of secularists and atheists, there is no parent who could in all conscience object to a non-denominational prayer per se. Inevitably, there has been formed in the public mind the impression that it is the atheists and secularists that are the ones who strenuously object to the Regents Prayer, or any mention of G-d’s Name, and those circles which identify themselves with the opposition to the Regents Prayer are quite naturally placed in the same camp with the secularists. There is thus an obvious case of Chilul HaShem, the Profanation of G-d’s Name, and also to the good name of the Jewish people (that is, Chilul HaShem in the eyes of the gentiles).
There is an additional point to be considered: The responsibility which the Jewish religion imposes upon its adherents towards the non-Jew in the matter of dissemination of the belief in G-d; certainly not to weaken that belief in any way, directly or indirectly, which comes under the Biblical injunction: “Place not a stumbling block before the blind.”
Vayikra 19:14.
