Under GOD

One Nation "Under GOD" ?

There's no law against praying in public school

In a letter to William Boldly ( Nov. 11, 1907), Republican President Theodore Roosevelt wrote regarding stamping "In God We Trust" on U. S. coins:
"My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins...not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege...."

Contrary to all the hype and hoopla of Conservative Christians claiming that America has installed "God-detectors" to prevent God from entering its public schools, there is no such thing. And those judges who believe that the U. S. Constitution calls for restrictions on religious expression in public schools are not the atheistic numb-skulls that Conservative Christians would make them out to be. On the other hand, it's hard to believe that many of those who are behind the disemination of misinformation on this issue don't know that they are misleading people when they give them the impression that government officials who fulfill the promise they make when they accept public office to abide by the constitution are acting against God or against religion.
The founders of our country were very clear about their desire to keep every and all religions out of the civil government of the United States of America. Christianity is more healthy here in America than in most of the "Christian" countries of Europe because American Christians are forced to take personal responsibility for perpetuating their faith and teaching their children, instead of expecting the government to do it for them ! Contrast that to European countries that have had officially recognized state churches, where attendance and interest is way, way down. One such country is Germany, where the two principal denominations, Lutheran & Catholic were subsidized by Hitler's Nazi government. Would those churches have been so generous in their praise of Hitler if his government had not been paying the bills for their christian churches and schools? See the sorry details at www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/RCscandal, which details the shocking cooperation of the Roman Catholic Church which Hitler. (The record of most of the Protestant churches was no better.)

Liberal Christians in America agree with Benjamin Franklin, who said :
"When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." Conservative Christians, on the other hand, embrace the view of Adolf Hitler, who said:

"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . we need believing people."
[April 26, 1933, from a speech made during negotiations leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of 1933

If so-called "Christian Conservatives" were really about conserving the teaching of Jesus Christ, they would hardly be in fighting in favor of promoting praying in public, for Matthew {Ch. 6: 5 & 6} tells us that Jesus recommended that
"When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who pretend piety by praying publicly on street corners and in the synagogues (religious schools), where everyone can see them. Truly, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, all alone, and shut the door behind you and pray to your Father secretly, and your Father, who knows your secrets, will reward you."

It's hard to improve on what the famous movie critic, Roger Ebert, published on this subject. We highly recommend :
Public Prayer Fanatics
Borrow Page from Enemy's Script
March 5, 2003
by Roger Ebert
God bless America
"The Bush administration has been dealt a setback in its campaign to allow prayer in our public schools. The full 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has voted 15 - 9 to back the 2 - 1 vote by its earlier panel finding the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words ''under God.''
The pledge, written in 1892, had those words added to it in 1954, during the Eisenhower administration, and I remember a nun in our Catholic school telling us we had to say it because it was the law - but it was wrong, because it violated the principle of separating church and state.
We started every day with classroom prayer at St. Mary's School, of course, but Sister Rosanne said there was a difference between voluntary prayer in a private religious school and prayer in a school paid for by every taxpayer - a distinction so obvious that Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft are forced to willfully ignore it.
Ashcroft said after the ruling that his Justice Department will ''spare no effort to preserve the rights of all our citizens to pledge allegiance to the American flag'' - a misrepresentation so blatant that it functions as a lie. The pledge remains intact and unchallenged. The court said nothing about pledging allegiance to the flag. It spoke only of the words ''under God'' - which amounted, the court said, to an endorsement of religion.
This is really an argument between two kinds of prayer - vertical and horizontal. I don't have the slightest problem with vertical prayer. It is horizontal prayer that frightens me. Vertical prayer is private, directed upward toward heaven. It need not be spoken aloud, because God is a spirit and has no ears. Horizontal prayer must always be audible, because its purpose is not to be heard by God, but to be heard by fellow men standing within earshot.
To choose an example from football, when my team needs a field goal to win and I think, ''Please, dear God, let them make it!'' - that is vertical prayer. When, before the game, a group of fans joins hands and ''voluntarily'' recites the Lord's Prayer - that is horizontal prayer. It serves one of two purposes: to encourage me to join them, or to make me feel excluded.
Although some of the horizontal devout are sincere, others use this prayer as a device of recruitment or intimidation. If you are conspicuous in your refusal to go along, they may even turn and pray while holding you directly in their sights.
This simple insight about two kinds of prayer, which is beyond theological question, should bring a dead halt to the obsession with prayer in public places. It doesn't, because the purpose of its supporters is political, not spiritual. Their faith is like Dial soap: Now that they use it, they wish everyone would. I grew up in an America where people of good breeding did not impose their religious convictions upon those they did not know very well. Now those manners have been discarded.
Our attorney general, John Ashcroft, is theoretically responsible for enforcing the separation of church and state. He violates his oath of office daily by getting down on his knees in his government office every morning and welcoming federal employees to join him in ''voluntary'' prayer on carpets paid for by the taxpayers.
His brand of religion is specifically fundamentalist evangelical. As his eyes lift from beneath lowered lids to take informal attendance, would he be gladdened to see a Muslim, a Catholic, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Baha'i, a Unitarian, a Scientologist, all accompanied by the chants of Hare Krishnas?
Under Bush we have had a great deal of horizontal prayer, in which we evoke the deity at political events to send the sideways message that our enemies had better look out, because God is on our side. This week's Newsweek cover story reports that the Bush presidency ''is the most resolutely 'faith-based' in modern times.''
Because our enemies are for the most part more enthusiastic about horizontal prayer than we are, and see absolutely no difference between church and state - indeed, want to make them the same - it is alarming to reflect that they may be having more success bringing us around to their point of view than we are at sticking to our own traditional American beliefs about freedom of religion. When Ashcroft and his enemies both begin their days with displays of their godliness, do we feel safer after they rise from their devotions?"
Copyright � Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

"It takes a village to raise children" Not only are Conservative rabble-rousers constantly circulating misinformation about children being denied the right to pray in America's public schools, but another of their favorite pastimes is defying the commandment "Thou shalt not bear false witness", in order to destroy the reputation of Hillary Clinton, who has at least as much reason to consider herself a devout Christian as many of her so-called "Christian" detractors.
For those who have ears to hear (and working speakers), Hillary reads the section of her book, "It Takes A Village", which explains the perfectly sensible relationship which has been worked out in America for our free Public Education system. The truth, as Hillary says it so well, is children have every right to pray in America's public schools, or not to pray, if they are so inclined.

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Public Prayer Fanatics Borrow Page from Enemy's Script

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Public Prayer Fanatics
Borrow Page from Enemy's Script