Most Christians have heard the name Engel v. Vitale. Almost nobody knows the actual story — who brought the case, what the prayer said, how the court ruled and why, and what one of the justices wrote in his dissent that most believers have never heard.

This episode walks through the 1962 Supreme Court decision that removed corporate prayer from American public schools — the door that opened everything the country has watched happen for the last sixty years. We cover the twenty-two-word prayer at the center of the case, Justice Hugo Black's reasoning (he was a Baptist, and his concerns were more complicated than the bumper-sticker version suggests), and Justice Potter Stewart's dissent — a remarkable piece of writing almost no Christian in America has ever heard.

Then we walk through the cascade of rulings that followed Engel every ten years — 1963, 1980, 1985, 1992, 2000 — and the fruit that showed up in the schools themselves almost immediately. We close on the reality that God is not defeated by a Supreme Court ruling. He never was. He never will be. What He does is move — and He calls His people to move with Him.

Free resource — The Doors: ten real ways back toward hope when you can't feel it. Grab it here: https://discipleblueprint.com/form/sah-door-overview

Read this week's companion blog posts:

• https://discipleblueprint.com/when-you-cant-feel-gods-hope-start-here/
• https://discipleblueprint.com/how-america-turned-from-god-and-i-watched-it-happen/

Follow Disciple Blueprint on Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest @discipleblueprint.