Appeals Court Bans Prayer 'in Jesus' name'

[Gordon James Klingenschmitt]

Ms. Jean Dudley exactly makes my point!  (Albeit in more colorful language :).   
   
  Governments should not pray as governments, nor establish non-sectarian religion as "the government's favored religion" or "the government's favored non-sectarian god."  
   
  ON THE CONTRARY, our form of government was established "to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America..."  which means PROTECTING each citizen's right to speak their mind, and pray according to personal conscience, (even in government forums, even as public officials), taking turns with equal opportunity.  Governments do not have souls, and cannot be religious, but government officials do have souls, so they never shed their personal religion and personal rights at the door.  
   
  John Whitehead with The Rutherford Institute has vowed to appeal Rev. Turner's case to SCOTUS, with this great quote:  
   
  "“This ruling shows exactly how dangerous the government speech doctrine is—it extinguishes free speech,” stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “If the government can censor speech on the grounds that it is so-called ‘government speech,’ it will not be long before this label becomes a convenient tool for silencing any message that does not conform to what government officials deem appropriate.”
   
  In Jesus,
  Chaplain K.
   
  

Jean Dudley <jean.dudley at gmail.com> wrote:
  
On Jul 24, 2008, at Thu, Jul 24, 2:51 PM, Gordon James 
Klingenschmitt wrote:

> Professors Lund and Essenberg seek the larger question, which I 
> believe seems to involve whether a government can pray, at all. We 
> all agree individuals can pray, and the First Amendment protects 
> individual speech by private citizens. But can governments pray?

Ostensibly, one particular form of government can pray; a 
theocracy. I suppose a monarchy such as the United Kingdom can pray 
as well, if the monarch is also the head of the state church. 
However, we are a representative democracy, and if *our* government 
prays, the prayer will of necessity be sectarian, and therefore 
exclusionary of other sects, and by default will be endorsing one 
religion over another and thus we have ipso facto a state religion. 
All well and fine it it's *your* religion, but not so fine if its not 
*your* religion.

Perhaps, Mr. Klingenschmitt, your question should be "should 
governments pray?". To which I would answer a resounding, emphatic, 
"Not just no, but HELL NO!"

Jean Dudley


       
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