I don’t know if it’s as much of an issue today or not but I know that several years ago Christians were making a big deal about prayer in public schools. Many Christians wanted school-led prayer allowed in public schools while secular groups pointed out that it would violate the First Amendment.
Well, I want to point out something else. Public prayer is a hypocrisy. Christians are informed very unambiguously that public prayer is done by hypocrites.
Matthew 6: 5-6 (KJV)
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
It is clear that those people that pray in churches, out on the street, or anywhere in public, are not succeeding as Christians. It is clear, according to Christian gospel, that anybody advocating prayer in school is doing so in blatant opposition to the teachings of Jesus. So just shut up you hypocrites, you have defeated yourselves!
X Amish Atheist 
It’s not an admonishment of those who pray in public; it’s a criticism of the scribes and pharisees who did so in vain. In a ostentatious, rote, meaningless, and self-aggrandizing manner.
Those verses are clear and I see no mention of the scribes or pharisees. Are you saying the Bible can’t always be taken word for word?
Those verses are the reason you don’t see the Amish praying in public (with the exception of saying grace during meals).
Don’t be ridiculous. There’s many other examples of prayer in the Bible.
James 5:14-16
“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
Psalm 95:2
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
Luke 18:9-14
“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”‘”
The subject of my post is not just prayer, but public prayer specifically. Your last comment is relevant (because the two are praying at a temple) but the other two are not since they’re referring to prayer or praise in general.
It seems to me that either Christians should not pray in public (Matthew 6) or the Bible is contradictory (if in other places it is advocating public prayer).
I’m not Amish, so what you are saying is irrelevant to me.
Isn’t it convenient that when you don’t agree with the literal meaning, you can just re-interpret it to fit to your belief system?
“Isn’t it convenient that when you don’t agree with the literal meaning, you can just re-interpret it to fit to your belief system?”
It’s not “convenient,” it’s using common sense and not misinterpreting the Bible.
That kind of Double Think is very common among Christians, X.
There are many, many such examples. Take the head covering for women, or Paul’s injunction that women should remain silent in the church.
Since obeying these commands would set them at variance with popular opinion, and may actually include mockery or static from mainstream society and its sacred cows, they will IMMEDIATELY find a way to rationalize.
“Oh, that verse is a mistranslation from the Greek!” (This one is especially favored and gets more use than the remaining rationalizations combined). “Those commandments only applied to that epoch in history..”
I’ll say this for the Amish and conservative Mennonites: they at least have the courage to be singled out and different. You don’t catch them re-inventing their supposedly Eternal God to suit the fancy of the world.
The thing you have to remember is that the entire belief system is built on contradictory ideas that cannot bear real inspection. It should come as no surprise that they constantly find ways around the clear instructions of their fables when it suits them.