SCHOOL PRAYER AND THE POLITICS OF LIFE-STYLE CONCERN.

This research examines the issue of prayer in the public schools from a status politics framework, arguing the struggle over prayer may be understood as a surface conflict reflecting a much deeper struggle between two contending ways of life. Regression analysis of original survey data finds strong support for the model hypothesized. Cultural fundamentalists are likely to support reinstitution of prayer in the public schools as an affirmation of their cherished and once dominant values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]