[by Chinta Strausberg] Even though 52-years ago the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-1 to ban prayer in schools, Spencer Leak, Sr., CEO, Leak & Sons Funeral Home and chairman emeritus of Liberty Baptist Church, met with scores of ministers and church members over the weekend at Josephine’s Cooking Restaurant, 436 E. 79th Street, where he vowed to lead the fight needed to restore prayer in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and he's holding the aldermen and the mayor accountable.

Leak,a member for 45-years of Liberty Baptist Church, said his pastor, Rev. Dr. Darrell Lamar Jackson, will hold a planning meeting in three weeks at Liberty located at 4849 S. King Drive. Leak said Rev. Jackson “is going to take the lead in our quest to get the bible in the CPS.” Black On Black Love is also involved.

Leak explained that meeting “will be timed after the Nov. 4^th election because that is the election we are concerned about--the one for mayor and 50 aldermen who we are going to put this proposition to. We are going to make this a part of their campaign. They are going to have to answer to us whether we can get this done and if not we need an elected school board to get this done.”

He will be inviting the aldermanic candidates asking for their support. “We know the timing is right for us to get this done. We won’t have another municipal election for four more years,” said Leak vowing to press this issue to the aldermen and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). “We want them to put the bible in the curriculum of the CPS.”

“If we can have Huckleberry Finn in the curriculum of the CPS where Finn uses the word ‘n….’ 15-30 times in the course of that story…if that book can be a part of the CPS curriculum and it should be, then certainly the bible can,” Leak stated.

“The bible is a book of values and when Mayor Emanuel was asked when we had a spike of violence over one of the weekend why, he held his hands up and said ‘values.’

“Wha tother book teaches values like the bible. No other book can do it. We’re holding the mayor to his word. Mr. Mayor, you said the problem was values. We got a book that teaches values and we can keep our young people from destroying themselves if that book is put into the CPS,” Leak told this reporter.

When told that some ministers said the fight to restore the bible to the class room is a losing battle, Leak quipped, “God specializes in losing battles. He specializes in the impossible. When you give God the proposition that something is losing…God gets active and God can only get active if we his created ones.This will win and we’re going to make it win,” he said.

Dr.JoAnn Long, pastor of the New Life Believers Church, said, “I believe in Dr. Leak’s vision in getting the bible restored in our classrooms to have that option.” As a child, Dr. Long said she read the bible in school and that children today should be able to do the same thing.  She said the bible teaches morals and values and that is what students today need. “We want our children to have high morals. The bible is also a guide….”

Also attending that meeting was mayoral hopeful Bill Walls who said, “The Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that it is legal to teach the bible in schools. You can teach it, but you can’t preach it. The bible is taught in schools all across America and there is no reason why it can’t be taught here in Chicago.”

Bishop Edgar Jackson, pastor of Beth El All Nations Church, said the bible “is an instrument we must use to bring some civility back into our society especially the young people who don’t know right from wrong. They do not have a moral foundation that they may be able to judge between what is right and wrong.

Agreeing was Gwendolyn Smith who said, “We perish for lack of knowledge and without knowledge we can’t move in this world. A lot of children have lost their way because they have not been taught…. We can’t let them learn on their own.”

Even though 52-years ago the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-1 to ban prayer in schools, Spencer Leak, Sr., CEO, Leak & Sons Funeral Home and chairman emeritus of Liberty Baptist Church, met with scores of ministers and church members at Josephine’s Cooking Restaurant where he vowed to lead the fight needed to restore prayer in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and he's holding the aldermen and the mayor accountable. (All photos by Chinta Strausberg)“If we can have Huckleberry Finn in the curriculum of the CPS where Finn uses the word ‘n….’ 15-30 times in the course of that story…if that book can be a part of the CPS curriculum and it should be, then certainly the bible can,” Leak stated.Dr. JoAnn Long, pastor of the New Life Believers Church, said, “I believe in Dr. Leak’s vision in getting the bible restored in our classrooms to have that option.” As a child, Dr. Long said she read the bible in school and that children today should be able to do the same thing. She said the bible teaches morals and values and that is what students today need. “We want our children to have high morals. The bible is also a guide….”Dr. JoAnn Long's husband, Dr. John Long, applauds his wife as she lays out her reasons for joining the fight to restore the bible in Chicago Public Schools.The audience listens intently at Spencer Leak, Sr. as he lays out his plans to restore the bible to the CPS classrooms.