DECATUR - Faith and the public schools shared a stage Sunday in a "Back to School Prayer Rally" in the Decatur Civic Center Auditorium.

Constitutional separations of church and state were sent to the back of the class as pastors and educators prayed together for divine intervention to save students from the evils of drugs, gangs, violence and neglect.

The rally attracted more than 200 people and was organized by the Christian Ministerial Alliance, representing some 65 Decatur area churches, which now hopes to make the event an annual occasion.

At one point the Decatur schools Superintendent Gloria Davis stood on stage in the center of a circle of ministers who touched her with their outstretched hands as they prayed for her and the 20,000 students in her care.

Davis earlier in the rally had not minced words in her speech, which at times appeared like a cross between a tent revival and a Christian rock concert with live music thumping out of huge speakers. The superintendent said she had been shocked to learn of the recent death by hanging of a 16-year-old boy who was being raised by relatives and was not found until three days after he died.

"What's wrong with our community that a 16-year-old wants to take his life? And he was hanging for three days and no one knew that," she said, her voice thundering like a cannon off the auditorium walls. "Three days," she said again. "Three days."

Davis said children needed Christian help and guidance and they should be able to find it from any Christian, not just their parents or family. "So I say to you this afternoon: Courage, hope, unity," she added. "I want our children to know that everyone in this community is behind them, that they care for them and they love them. Because that is the way God ordered it."

The theme of Christian involvement in schools and the life of children was taken up by speaker after speaker at Sunday's two-hour rally. Keith Ray, president of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary, gave the keynote address and spoke of building a bright future for kids on solid Christian values.

In an interview before the rally, Ray said America's moral fabric "is tattered" and that it was time to "let God back into the system." He added: "As Winston Churchill said, 'You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else.'"

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