Schools will not lead prayer

[cleanhippie]

Lauderdale County Superintendent of Education Bill Valentine said his school district’s position on Christian prayer being offered via public address before football games focuses on one thing: abiding by the law.

Valentine and school district attorney James Irby drafted a formal response Monday to a recent complaint that prayers over stadium loudspeakers invoking the name of Jesus Christ are in violation of the First Amendment.

The letter to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which led the charge to stop public prayer on behalf of Lauderdale County resident Jeremy Green, said the school district will not use the public address system to establish, lead, direct, organize or encourage prayer.

“We’re not just doing this in response to this organization, but as a result of researching the law and realizing that the decision had already been made through court cases,” Valentine said. “There will no longer be prayers over the PA system at football games, but we’re not going beyond that at this point.”

http://www.timesdaily.com/stories/Schools-will-not-lead-prayer,183874

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. I'm glad about this. Public prayer angers too many people. Further, if they're going to have

prayer, they need to include prayers of all groups, including atheist prayers.

[MineralMan]

3. Atheist prayers? What would such a thing be?

I'm an atheist, and have been for over 40 years. I cannot conceive of what an atheist prayer would say. Do you have some example? To whom would an atheist prayer be directed? I guess I don't understand the concept.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Um... 'body keep me healthy'... 'brain, keep me brilliant'... ;-) nt

[Deep13]

14. Dear nobody. Please continue not doing anything. Amen.

atheist prayer

[Sarah Ibarruri]

18. LOL! :) nt

[madrchsod]

2. in god we trust should be gone too...

god leaves it up to us to decide who to trust.

[Deep13]

15. Yeah, I don't trust god and neither does the country.

If we did, we wouldn't need money. Or a government. We could all just let go and let God.

[Goblinmonger]

4. Wow, a government official that didn't throw the letter from the FFRF away

because they were just some idiots he didn't know. Who'd have thunk it.

I love the "they are telling us we can't pray" comment? Really? Who told you that? They just said you can't use the government's mic to do it. I still think the praying on the field is bullshit because there is far too much pressure on players that don't want to for personal or religious (or lack of religious) reasons. But at least the principal did the right thing.

[rurallib]

6. sure took their sweet time researching the court cases

wasn't that decided @40 years ago? Maybe the FFRF letter reminded them?

[SheilaT]

7. The best way to make these people understand

how offensive this is, is to have someone recite a Hail Mary or an Apostle's Creed (both Catholic prayers).

Prayer needs to be private unless you are knowingly gathered with others of your belief system. And, if you're at something like a public school, even if everyone in your group is of your faith, public prayers still have no place.

[Still Blue in PDX]

8. Invoking the Goddess before a sporting event might be fun.

I first thought The Charge of the Goddess, but that is probably too long and flowery, so I hunted this one up on the interwebs, sure to make lots of heads explode.

"Oh Goddess, Source of Gods and Mortals,
All-Fertile, All-Destroying Gaia,
Mother of All, Who brings forth the bounteous fruits and flowers,
All variety, Maiden who anchors the eternal world in our own,
Immortal, Blessed, crowned with every grace,
Deep bosomed Earth, sweet plains and fields fragrant grasses in the nurturing rains,
Around you fly the beauteous stars, eternal and divine,
Come, Blessed Goddess, and hear the prayers of Your children,
And make the increase of the fruits and grains your constant care,
With the fertile seasons Your handmaidens,
Draw near, and bless your supplicants."
- Orphic Hym to Gaia, Translated by Virginia Stewart.

[SheilaT]

9. Just so long as it would make

the fundies, or even the quiet Protestants who do not understand that not everyone goes along with their beliefs, have a hissy fit.

[lindysalsagal]

10. Deep bosomed Earth, sweet plains and fields fragrant grasses in the nurturing rains

OK I'm totally horny now, and I'm a straight woman!

Love it!!! O8) :loveya:

[Still Blue in PDX]

20. Beautiful, isn't it?

In a totally sexy way.

It just makes sense to me if we gotta serve someone (that must be true because Bob Dylan said it), it may as well be the Earth. At least we know it/She is real.

:hi:

[Deep13]

16. All destroying? Sounds more like Yahweh. Or Vishnu. nt

[Still Blue in PDX]

19. Nature isn't all moonbeams and fluffy bunnies.

Look at that sinkhole in New York that tried to eat the 80-year-old man! Or something like that; it happened a day or two ago.

:crazy:

[Deep13]

21. Tried? Was the sinkhole disappointed that it failed?

It's easy to explain destructive natural occurrences that just happen. If there is no intentionality behind it, there is no point wondering "why" something happens. It is only when we personify nature by attributing it to divine will that we run into logical problems like those of theodicy.

[Still Blue in PDX]

22. Couldn't tell you!

That was actually more of a colloquialism than anthropomorphism. I say, "It's trying to rain" when it is sprinkling outside, too. In the Northwest, if it isn't raining (and what IS this IT of which we speak, anyway?) it is trying to. Unless the sun is out. Or trying to come out!

I don't know if it is from being raised by a Southern woman who talked that way or because I'm innately a panentheist more than a polytheist or monotheist.

[lindysalsagal]

11. Standard Establishment clause school response. Got it right.

I know the letter of the law in NY state, and that's exactly it: You can have a student run after school prayer group in a classroom as long as a teacher or other adult isn't running it, and using their influence over children to recruit.

Prayers over loud speakers are definitely recruiting. Any students who don't agree with the prayers immediately know they're not included, and that's just not OK in a public school.

So, we let anyone leave early to go worship anywhere else, but we don't use their vulnerability as children to further our own purposes.
Ever. Politics or religion.

[NMMNG]

12. Have they been living in a cave for the past century?

“We’re not just doing this in response to this organization, but as a result of researching the law and realizing that the decision had already been made through court cases,” Valentine said.

Really? That's all news to him? :crazy:

[Deep13]

13. But the creator of the universe cares deeply about your high school ball game! nt

[NMMNG]

23. Of course he does

That's why so many people starve to death, perish in natural disasters and waste away from disease. God is too busy responding to peoples' prayers for their team to win.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. As if God cares who wins a football game, anyway

This whole evangelical "God helped me find a parking space" routine makes God into one's personal go-fer.