On May 8, 1:02=A0am, buckeye <buckeye...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> US Government Sponsored Prayers and The Pledge of
Allegiancehttp://bbsnews=
..net/article.php/20080501163949996
> [excerpt]
>
> =A0Thursday, 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.
>
No it doesn't. The Constitution says nothing about separation of
Church and State. I looked; it isn't there. In fact, the
Constitution specifically states that "Congress shall make no
law . . . prohibiting the free exercise [of religion]." Congress has
no authority to prohibit anyone from engaging in religious exercises,
in public, in private, in prison, or even in Congress itself. Free men
are entitled to pray as they please--even congressmen.
The Constitution, in the very same amendment, grants to all citizens
of the United States the right "peaceably to assemble." That includes
congressmen too. If Congressmen want to assemble and pray--or pray at
their assembly--no authority in the United States can stop them. They
have the constitutional right.
Now we all know that some people don't like that idea; they don't like
people to pray. Some people think it foolish, futile, and
bothersome. Some opponents to prayer simply don't believe in the same
God that Congressmen are praying to. Some don't believe in any god at
all. They are the people who twist the language of the First
Amendment prohibiting Congress from interfering with religion into a
prohibition against religion. Some sitting Judges are good at this;
they hold that while Congress cannot prohibit prayer, the courts
certainly can--and, ironically, they cite the First Amendment.
The result: one insignificant troublemaker can ask any U.S. court to
stop entire communities from exercising their Constitutional right to
practice their religion in their tax-paid public places like schools
and meeting halls. And we have meddlesome people like the author
Naman Crowe objecting to members of the Congress of the United States
taking a few minutes to recite a short prayer before getting down to
the business of trying to govern the country--Crowe claims it's
"unconstitutional." We should set aside a day of prayer for those
confused people who can't understand the plain language of the First
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
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