Supreme Court OKs prayer before town board meetings

Think that The Obamacare and DOMA rulings has bought The Court a lot of good will
amongst conservative groups.

 

I should note that I also think Kagan's dissent, specifically the part that says prayer is OK as long there's a requirement to include all religions, is bullshit, too.

 

As a Christian, I find the majority ruling written in a way that devalues religion -- and speaks to why these prayers should be dropped. The justices keep referring to "tradition" and "ceremonial" prayers, basically trying to argue they mean nothing spiritually. So the power of prayer, which comes from an intimate, personal or intense conversation with God (as a group or individually), is reduced to empty words, legally speaking. Why bother?

Interesting, too, that the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that anything that smacks of leading prayer in schools is verboten, such as student-led prayer over the PA before football games, or coach-approved prayer in the locker room. Yet when it comes to legislative bodies, it's a-OK. I don't get that.

Me, I'd eliminate everything up to and including the White House Prayer Breakfast. That doesn't stop you from personally bringing your religion wherever you want. It does stop you from forcing others to participate in it.

 

Oh please. Religion is invoked in public all the time, by folks on both sides of the aisle.

Which Justice just included this biblical quotation from the Book of John in their decision in another case: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth”?

I always love this statement too, who said it?

They ask me all the time what is your favorite this, what is your favorite that, what is your favorite that. And at one time what is your favorite word. And I said, my favorite word, that is really easy. My favorite word is the word, is the word. And that is everything. It says it all for us. And you know the biblical reference, you know the Gospel reference of the word.

We have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the word. Fill it in with anything you want but, of course, we know it means the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.

The reason no one freaks out about Dems invoking religion is because no one believes them.

 

That didn't address my post at all, but OK.

 

"No one."

 

Sure it did. Dems, including the President, invoke religion, religious prayer, religious concepts, and Biblical quotes, regularly.

And, there is no rending of garments.

 

There is a difference between using religion as a guide to your own life and your moral compass to help others, and using it a hammer to condemn others, and demand fealty to a specific way of life and worship.

 

I'm not talking about invoking religion. I'm talking about stating that prayer has no spiritual value and is merely ceremonial, as Kennedy did. There's not enough bandwidth on the entire Internet to deal with the rage explosion that would occur if President Obama made a similar statement.

 

Sure. But, you don't need to invoke it publicly, if it is purely a guide to your own life and moral compass.

It's invoked in public to convey what a person believes, and how it instructs their public life.

 

Well, then maybe my response wasn't on topic.

 

Eh, it was a digression anyway. Get in here and let's hug it out.