US Government Sponsored Prayers and The Pledge of Allegiance
http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20080501163949996
[excerpt]
Thursday, May 01 2008 @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
04:39 PM EDT
Edited by: Michael Hess
The American Way
BBSNews 2008-05-01 -- By Naman Crowe. I've sung this song but I'll sing it
again. Let's get real. Let's start looking to the day when we can put to
rest the tired tradition of opening Congress with the Daily Prayer and
Pledge of Allegiance, on the grounds that they go counter to our
Constitution which requires a separation of Church and State.
I know it will happen at some time in the distant future, but I'm tired of
waiting for the cake to bake. Is it needful for these honorable men and
women to reaffirm their fidelity to their country every time they open
their sessions?
Don't any of these people deserve the respect of having their allegiance
go
unquestioned? Doesn't every citizen deserve the respect of having their
allegiance accepted as a given? Does reciting the Pledge of Allegiance
make
it so?
Wouldn't a spy or some other type person working undercover for a foreign
country or some terrorist organization just go ahead and recite the Pledge
of Allegiance anyway? So, what does it prove? It proves that America pays
too much attention to the vain and superficial than it does to reality and
substance.
And look at these prayers every morning. What are they but Christian
preachers delivering up instructions to God? Listen to these prayers
closely and see if they are not just basically asking God to do the right
thing and follow their instructions and explanations as they recite them
publically before Congress and the nation?
There is no Separation of Church and State in this practice, which should
never have been started in the first place. I believe it was Ben Franklin
that started the mess. I don't fault him for it. We all make mistakes.
Besides, that was a special moment and place. I wouldn't have offered up a
prayer but probably would have let out a yell and thanked God for the
birth
of the United States of America.
Ben would have to agree with me today when I say that was the birth of
freedom, not only freedom of religion but freedom from religion. Good God
All Mighty, spare me from the bonds of revealed religion. Thomas Paine,
without whom it could not have been accomplished, would agree with me too.
So, what are we doing 232 years later starting the whole thing off with a
Christian prayer? We even pay for these prayers. Both the House and the
Senate have their own chaplains. Often there are guest preachers. And then
the first order of business (as I saw this morning) is for the congressman
that invited the preacher, a relative of his, to get up and talk about
what
a jewel of a Christian he is.
And what have all these daily prayers gotten us? What good have they been?
What good are they? What's the purpose? I can see no other purpose than
the
natural inclination to continue a worn out tradition and vain ritual that,
in effect, bonds the Church with the State right out of the box.
And as for the Pledge of Allegiance, again, we should have never allowed
that to get started. No child in school should ever be subjected to a
Pledge of Allegiance requirement. That may have been fine for a nation
ruled by Hitler, but it doesn't represent Freedom and it shouldn't
represent the United States.
[end excerpt]
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why
"a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v.
Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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