Matthew 6: 5-6: “When you pray, do not do as the hypocrites do, for they love to pray standing in the synagogue and on the corners of streets, so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. Instead, when you pray, enter into your room and shut the door, and pray to thy Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.”
A football coach wants to pray on the 50 yard line. He’s filed a lawsuit. Ask yourself: WHO is paying for the lawsuit? Supreme Court suits can cost multiple millions. Ask yourself: WHICH legal team is supporting this case? WHO finances them? Ask yourself: why is it “necessary” to pray on the 50 yard line? WHO stands to gain if the McConnell/Roberts “court” supports his concept of his “religious rights?”
Where does this end? Will we now see pre and post-game prayers at mid-ice, mid-court, mid-pitch, home plate? If YOU have meetings with various public and private officials, will YOU be forced to sit through a prayer session? Will transit drivers ask YOU to pray with them before your journey starts? Will YOU be required to pray with your dentist before he/she work on your mouth? Will pilots, after flight attendants give instructions, ask you to pray with them before YOUR flight? Will YOU be required to pray before the cashier rinks up your purchases?
What if YOU don’t want to be forced to pray? Will YOU be denied services? Ask yourself: what if this man hadn’t been “a Christian?” Would we be discussing this if the prayer had been a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist prayer? Or – a satanic ceremony? A Native American prayer?
If the Mcconnell/Roberts “court” rules for this man – how many prayers could YOU be forced to say each day – at a store, at YOUR cafe, to get your car out of a parking lot, to get on “public” transit?????
Are YOU gullible enough to believe this is only about one man praying [at the 50 yard line]??? What forces in America [world-wide] want to inject THEIR. religious beliefs into YOUR. life??? Do research people!!! WHO has been saying for over 30 years “there is a religious war in America?” WHO has said publicly that other religions, not theirs, are lesser, invalid faiths? WHO has already tried to bend laws so they can deny YOU. services [legal prescriptions, adoptions of children, legal medical services, etc.]???
Read Charles Kimball’s “When Religion Becomes Evil.” Think on Kimball’s “The Five Warning Signs of Corruption in Religion” [absolute truth claims, the end justifies any means…] Why does Kimball suggest the Taliban and the American “religious right” are on a continuum? Is it perhaps that the Taliban has an extremely “conservative” interpretation of Islam, and the “Christian right” has an extremely “conservative” interpretation of what it says is “Christianity?”
Do. You. want modern day “Puritans” telling YOU. how to run. YOUR. life?????????????
1776 – 1800. U.S. Constitutional. Law:
– 1792 Delaware, Article I, Section l: “no man shall or ought to be compelled to attend any religious worship..against his own free will… Article 29: “There shall be no establishment of any one religious sect in this State in preference to another…”
– 1798 Georgia, Article IV, Section 10: “No person within this State shall, upon any pretence be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping God in a manner agreeable to his own conscience..”
– 1792 Kentucky, Article XII, Section 3: “That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences…”
– 1776 Maryland, Article XXXIII: “..wherefore no person ought by any law be molested in his person..on account of his religious persuasion..nor ought any person be compelled to frequent or maintain..any particular ministry..”
-1780 Massachusetts, First Part, Article II: “And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained.. for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.”
– 1784 New Hampshire, Part One, Article I, Section 5: “Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship GOD according to the dictates of his own conscience..and no subordination of any one sect..to another, shall ever be established..”
– 1776 New Jersey, Article XVIII: “That no person shall ever..be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; nor, under any pretence whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship…..no establishment of any one religion…”
– 1776 North Carolina, Article XXXIV: ” shall be no establishment of anyone religious church..neither shall any person, on any pretense whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith or judgment..”
– ***** 1791 U.S. “Bill of Rights,” Amendment I: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
The historically-challenged McConnell/Roberts “supreme court” wants to examine whether a high school football coach should be allowed to publicly pray on the 50 yard line, in the presence of others. Major issue: whether formally, or informally [peer pressure, pressure] members of either football team will feel COMPELLED – against “the dictates of his own conscience” – to attend, so as not to feel hostile, or not be a “member of the team.”
Previously, the 9th U.S, Circuit Court of Appeals said; “Context matters. At issue in this case is not, as Kennedy attempts to gloss it, a personal and private exercise of faith. At issue was – in every sense of the word – a demonstration, and because Kennedy demanded that it take place immediately after the final whistle, it was a demonstration necessarily directed at students and the attending public.”
Meaning, Kennedy is not “shutting the door and praying privately.”
Barry Goldwater: “Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless decent people connected to them realize that religion has no place in public policy.”
Robert E. Lee: “Is it not strange that the descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom of opinion have always proved themselves intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?”
George Washington: “I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man..ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”
[above 3 quotes courtesy of the Harper Book of American quotes]
“Freedom of religion” means both freedom of and freedom from. You cannot have one without the other.”i
With Justice For All 