Federal Judge Prohibits Prayer at Texas Graduation Ceremony

The topic isn't about me, numbnuts... It's about praying... But thanks for playing.

(...and for the record, how many accomplishments can YOU point to in your life?)

As TPP is so eloquent at saying: :Snooze

So I am curious, did they have counselors standing by for all the trama that was caused by this? Or medics for all of the irrevocable damage this may have caused to people attending?

I doubt that a bunch of students at a graduation ceremony "spontaneously" pray. They plan it. Yes, I'm a skeptic and a cynic when it comes to this spontaneity.

Again, if they want to bring religion into graduation, have a privately sponsored baccalareate service.

Currently in this country, Christians are probably the majority in schools in many places. Why do the rest of the students have to have Christian students push their agenda. And let's face it, that's what it's all about.

Graduation is no place to proselytize. It's a place to celebrate getting out of high school.

I don't care if they talk about how their church helped them. But forget prayers and halleluiahs. Or, and amen.

Our church had a special service to bless all our graduates and to praise God for their accomplishments. It was a beautiful, appropriate service in exactly the correct place, the church community.

archer wrote:

jf1acai wrote:

...just don't understand why some think that kids have the same rights in school that adults have outside of school.

What is troubling to me is that some seem to think that neither adults nor kids have any right to even mention religion in passing. I see nothing wrong with a student thanking his/her God/deity of choice/whatever in a graduation speech, in fact I appreciate it.

I don't have a problem with that either.....what I think people have a problem with is not a student mentioning God in his/her speesh.....but having someone, including a student, specifically give a prayer.....that is including religion as part of the ceremony.....you know....the line in the program that says prayer....and some one is introduced as so-and-so will now lead us in prayer, I don't think that has any place in a public school graduation.....but I don't get too upset if it is there.

There is a difference between having a religious leader lead everyone is reciting the Rosary and having them give an invocation asking that God watch over, protect and bless the assembled. One is organized religious activity, one is not. I would agree that the first has no place in a public school graduation ceremony and would, though a Roman Catholic myself, be one of the first ones to say that it has no place at a public high school graduation. That isn't what we are talking about here at all. What this is in regards to is someone asking that the assembled by blessed, guided and protected whether they share the same belief as the one invoking their deity or not. It is not a group prayer, it is a prayer for the group given by an individual person.

For the record, I have no problem with a Muslim praying to Allah and invoking His name to watch over and protect me. Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, God the Father, The Great Spirit, Creator of All Life........it's all the same deity from a different cultural perspective. I agree with Sam Adams - I am no bigot; I can hear the prayers of anyone of piety and virtue who is a friend to their country. The prayer at such times is that the assembled may benefit from the guidance, wisdom and care of that which is greater than themselves. That does no one irreparable harm, it is not an establishment of a religion by the state. It is instead a kindness being shown them by someone else. Someone is asking that you be watched over, guided, protected and loved. Shame on them, we have no place in our society for the kindness of others after all...............

PrintSmith wrote: Shame on them, we have no place in our society for the kindness of others after all...............

Too bad that sentiment doesn't apply to all of the rest of the "compassionate conservatives" war on the middle and lower class... Trying to call themselves "christians", and pursue the decidedly anti-christian politics and economics of Ayn Rand-types is more than a bit disingenuous...

You confuse the desire to remove charity from the sophistry of the general government under the guise of collective salvation with individual's being charitable my friend. It is not decidedly anti-christian to force others to participate in charity because you think charity is a good and admirable virtue to possess. The reality of the situation is that the religious are much more charitable than the non-religious are overall. Giving of yourself to others is an individual, not a state sponsored, obligation. The sooner we realize we don't pay taxes for the government to be charitable with our money by proxy, the better off we will all be.

Hence the never-ending tiresome dispute of what "the General Welfare" clause means... :Snooze

...and no, I'm not interested in hearing the umpteenth regurgitation of your Constitution Party , LawAndLiberty , ReasonOfFreedom , PoliticsOfLiberty , TeaPartyPatriot excursions into what you THINK the Constitution says, or should have said. The Supreme Court interprets, and has done so for a little over 230 years. Their interpretations of what it means are what is important, and not the libertarian nonsense of the radical right. The "general welfare" clause was not "invented", but obviously it has been interpreted to mean something you don't agree with.

So, we'll continue to agree to disagree...

I don't usually jump in on these kind of discussions, but I ran across this Op-Ed that pretty much echoed the way I feel about the whole prayer in public school business.

"... if I were allowed to offer a prayer, I would echo Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address -- 'With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds ...'
"Or we could stop wounding one another and just grow up. That would be my prayer today, if I were allowed to pray."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11157/1151679-152-0.stm