"The court said in a 5-4 decision Monday that the content of the prayers is not critical as long as officials make a good-faith effort at inclusion." (read more)
Dissenting, Justice Kagan wrote...
"I have no doubt that every member of this Court believes as firmly as I that our institutions of government belong equally to all, regardless of faith. Rather, the error reflects two kinds of blindness," Kagan wrote. "First, the majority misapprehends the facts of this case, as distinct from those characterizing traditional legislative prayer. And second, the majority misjudges the essential meaning of the religious worship in Greece's town hall, along with its capacity to exclude and divide."
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Wikipedia: "The English common name for the order is the mantises, or rarely (using a Latinized plural of Greek mantis), the mantes. The name mantid refers only to members of the family Mantidae. The other common name, often applied to any species in the order, is "praying mantis", because of the typical "prayer-like" posture with folded fore-limbs, although the folk etymology "preying mantis" is sometimes used in reference to their predatory habits."
209 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 209 of 209"Now we can ask, and I think people need to answer that if they want it part of the law."
It's fully answered in the opinion. It's an interesting read and not as dense with legalese as most. It might even change your mind.
These expressions of religion don't raise government, except to sanction what deserves none
Who knows. Maybe it'd be even worse. Like Evelyn Waugh's saying “You have no idea how much nastier I'd be if I was not a Catholic."
"But I think it's obvious what this will do."
What it did that's obvious was uphold a couple hundred years of precedent.
I think one of our biggest problems is that we already have too much respect for government. I bet God hates the whole idea of these prayers. It's like someone using your name to sell timeshares in North Korea.
I started this thread, and I'll finish it.
Just kidding. It's late. Good talk. Night all.
Late to the thread...but I have to agree with Paddy O and Bagoh20. Though a Catholic (baptized at age 69..e.g., reluctant Christian you might say) I am uncomfortable with "public" prayer like that shown (specifically) in the video clip...it just goes too far and serves no purpose. It is plainly "praying in the marketplace" and I find that gross and insincere.
I have prayed, for my life and that of those nearby, in a hole in the dirt, when necessary...it just took me another 40 years to admit it. It is a very serious thing for me...loud specific pronouncements like that shown in the clip here just nauseate me.
A nominal prayer and reference to God to begin a public meeting is fine, if is at least a bit ecumenical. However, I ignore them all...a prayer in silence in a private place means far more to me.
Rhythm and Balls said...
Well to be fair, Bag - the priest did say that a Satanist could conduct the ceremony, but he has yet to chime in on whether he agrees it's right that they could require it (as the ruling allows) - and apparently force the good Christians to run out in protest in order to make their now un-Constitutional point.
A satanist, I suppose could conduct a ceremonial prayer, but what would that be like. Now I'm more intrigued than anything else. I don't think it would bother me, but I would be curious to hear it. However, I know that a lot of people would drop a deuce if it actually happened and torches and pitchforks would come out of the dustbins.
[Just saw this on the amazing web - it has something for everyone!]
The Background Obama Can't Cover Up !
Islam, part of the Living River of History, affected even the 2012 US election!
The "headwaters" of this River was Adam, according to Judaism, Christianity, Islam etc .
In the OT (Deut. 28), "tributaries" wanting to join the River will be blessed while "distributaries" who want to flow away from it will be cursed. Those wishing to totally separate from the fresh Living River will end up as polluted, dying "oxbow lakes."
In the OT we see Israelites repeatedly flowing away from God, then repenting and returning to Him; we also see heathen "oxbow lakes" creating their own "gods" and being allowed by God to plunder and kill the erring Israelites.
Then, at the right time, the Living River took on new life with the arrival of the Promised One who offers "living water."
In the 7th century Islam, drawing from both OT and NT, chose to be a distributary away from this River. Many scholars have viewed it as the final Antichrist: note "scourge" (Isa. 28), "Assyrian" (Mic. 5), "Euphrates" (Rev. 9) etc.
God will allow this "scourge" to temporarily persecute and even kill apostate Jews (JINOs) and Christians (CINOs). Jews, especially in "entertainment," seem more expert in apostasy than Christians since Jews have been at it 2000 years longer than Christians have (Google "jewishfaces.com/porn.html") - but Christians apparently want to catch up to the Jews!
It's apparent that others will join Islam in its end-time inquisition; its great oil wealth can captivate many leaders and already we are seeing apostate American leaders being bribed into turning against true American patriots.
Those who ignore (or try to dilute or destroy) the God-ordained Living River of History will be swept down it to an ocean made by their own never-ending tears of agony and despair.
The good news is that American JINOs & CINOs can overcome the "scourge" discussed above. The secret is found by checking out "II Chronicles 7:14" & "John 3:16" on the web.
There's still time - and freedom - to Google or MSN "Obama Promotes Public Sex," "Obama a Black-Slavery Avenger?," "Dangerous Radicals of the Religious Right," "Pretrib Rapture Politics," "Mikey Weinstein, Jesus-Basher," "Christ's return is NOT imminent," "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty," "Pretrib Rapture Secrets," and (for dessert) "Pretrib Rapture Pride."
In light of Matthew 7:2, if we tolerate Christian leaders who lie to us and steal from us, we shouldn't be surprised if God allows us to have political leaders who lie to us and steal from us!
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