VA BANS MENTION OF GOD AND PRAYERS AT VETERANS FUNERALS.

It's the result of repeating a lie so often that it becomes truth. Folks have been hearing "wall of separation between church and state" for so long now they don't know or remember that the Supreme Court of this nation has ruled quite clearly that while that is a useful metaphor, it is a far cry from the actual condition of things. Religion must not only be tolerated, it must be accommodated within the public sphere by the government. Accommodated - as in allowed to occur. To suppress the expression of religion, to drive it from the public square, to discriminate based upon religion by the state, is just as unconstitutional as it would be for the federal government to attempt to establish a religion.

That is the actuality of things. There is no wall that exists to completely separate the two; there was never intended to be one either. What exists instead is for any and all to exist and be accommodated with no preference for one above another given by the government.

Thank you for that irrelevant and useless interpretation of your version of the facts...

(Insert standard Federalist bullsh*t here: _____________________________)

Please forgive me for not subjecting my beautiful mind to the twaddle from WND or the Liberty whatever but are they telling me that if I were to have my father (who is already dead and buried at Fort Logan with a lovely religious-based ceremony) buried by the VA at a National Cemetery, I could not have a priest invoke "God" (or whichever deity of his choosing) at the graveside service? Is that what is being claimed? Seriously?

I am outraged

If you want your religion accepted by the liberals and the liberal-run courts, then just change your religion to Islam, Hindu, Buhdaism, etc. All will be well. Just don't mention Christianity. (The liberals are still rebelling against their parents and their religion. It's an "in your face" sort of thing.)

So it turns out that as is typical with conservatives, this NEVER happened.

"Ocasio and other cemetery employees never banned religious words such as God and Jesus, do not censor the content of prayer or religious speech from burial services, do not require written approval for religious rituals, and are not engaged in unlawful religious discrimination, according to the document.

“In every instance, Defendants have sought to honor and respect the religious preferences, if any, of the families of deceased Veterans during private committal services,”

http://blog.chron.com/armedsources/2011 ... -cemetery/

This is also a rehash of an outrage-of-the-day story some time back...

So, I left on July 11th, returned this week, and this is what I see. YAWWWWWN.

Something the Dog Said wrote: So it turns out that as is typical with conservatives, this NEVER happened.

"Ocasio and other cemetery employees never banned religious words such as God and Jesus, do not censor the content of prayer or religious speech from burial services, do not require written approval for religious rituals, and are not engaged in unlawful religious discrimination, according to the document.

“In every instance, Defendants have sought to honor and respect the religious preferences, if any, of the families of deceased Veterans during private committal services,”

http://blog.chron.com/armedsources/2011 ... -cemetery/

This did happen and now they are trying to cover their butts. From all FACTS that the VFW has, it only happened at the Houston one. So let me get this right. The VA responds to a lawsuit, saying that it did not happen, and that the VA does not condone this practice at all. Which for the most part does not happen. They just happen to have a director that did do wrong. Now lets see, the VFW, the American Legion, the Vietnam Veterans Assoc, and lots more all investigated it and found it to be true, but since the VA in response to the lawsuit says it never happened then it never happened. NOT Get your facts straight before you make your statements. I will take the word of these various Veterans Associations instead of the VA trying to cover thier asses.

If you read the lawsuit complaint, the only fact that was offered was that a minister who was a volunteer for a public ceremony at the cemetery (not a private funeral) was requested to provide a copy of his prepared remarks. Since he was representing the government, he was requested to keep the remarks general and not provide specific proselytizing remarks. This is appropriate. The other allegations that this same request was made for private ceremonies such as burials was simply allegations and no specifics were presented. Again, it is my opinion that the government may limit religious remarks if the individual is acting as spokesman for the government, particularly on government property. It is not ok to limit remarks by private individuals at a private function, even if it is on government property. In this instance, I believe it is appropriate that volunteers not push their religious beliefs on those who may not welcome such remarks, if those volunteers are representing the government. If someone did attempt to censor religious remarks at a private ceremony, then they overstepped and appropriate actions should be taken to prevent that from happening. This appears to be more of a publicity action rather than one based on a true issue.