Ralph Reed - A Trivial Link?

[richard duncan]

Patricia Livingston writes:>
>
> ::     "Congratulations and Praise be to God!  You have all passed His
> tests and now enter the world to carry on the work of the Lord!  May each
> and every one of you be ever thankful to God, for guiding you through these
> last four years, albeit he offed about 14 of you in auto-accidents, cancer,
> or drive-by shootings ...remember, He has a plan for THEM too!
>         Live for them, live for Jesus, and as some of you enter the Military, may
> God be always on your side.  (Of course if I were giving this prayer on
> foreign territory I guess I'd have to switch my loyalties.)
>         Go ye forth, knowing that you have been chosen -unless any of you happen
> to be Atheist, Jewish, Wiccan, Humanist, etc....
>         (Oh, and don't forget to multiply.)"   ::
>
> THERE!!  Only 40 seconds.    ...  A "trivial link?"
> Remember, all the camel needs is to get his nose under the tent.
> ______________________

C'mon, Ms. Livingston. If *you* heard such a prayer delivered at a
public school commencement would you assume it represented the
official, established religious philosophy of the state? The *more*
extreme or offensive the prayer, the more trivial it is with respect
to the concerns of the Establishment Clause.

By the way, the problem is not the nose of the clerical camel. It's
the one-size-fits-all-secular-monopoly tent that's the problem! If we
truly believe in religious equality and freedom of conscience, we need
many different tents to meet the differing needs of our pluralistic
nation. Camels (all all other critters) ought to have a tent that
meets the needs of their children.

--
                   ----------
             Rick Duncan (rduncan at unlinfo.unl.edu)