Like they'd actually have taken the prayer out...

[conuly]

This late in the game, that'd be admitting that God does not sanction this election.

Unless he does. Or doesn't exist. Or whatever. But any god who'd sanction Bush as president is not the god for me.

Comments

[rainbowdarling.livejournal.com]

Isn't refusing someone else the right to pray at a ceremony putting them into office just like obstructing their freedom of religion? I don't like when people tell me I have to salute the flag because I'm an American, but I don't let them telling me that bother me, and continue to not salute the flag. If a person doesn't want to hear praying, and chooses not to attend an event, its his or her own choice, not the choice on behalf of the government, to do so. Besides, he could always close his ears.

In prayer, they aren't saying "our religion is the only acceptable one." They're saying, "This is what I believe, and I choose to excercise it publicly." Not such an unusual thing.

[conuly]

Unless I seriously misread the article (possible, it IS late), nobody is trying to stop Bush from praying. They're trying to prevent him from having a public, official prayer. It's a public governmental ceremony, not a public religious ceremony. There's no need to call in the clergy.

[rainbowdarling.livejournal.com]

I don't think there should be a reason to prevent him from doing so. He isn't forcing anyone to agree with them; he's excercising his rights. (Lord knows we don't get to do that enough in this country.)

[conuly]

His rights to pray end when he makes a spectacle and a religious ceremony over something having to do with the goverment.

[rainbowdarling.livejournal.com]

He is requesting that there be prayers at his ceremony, not that of, say, John Kerry. He has the right.

[conuly]

But it's not his ceremony. It's not like a wedding where the only important people are the bride and groom. It's a public ceremony, and it doesn't belong to him. It belongs to the public - all of us who love and defend the establishment clause.

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

But it's not his ceremony, it's the entire nation's ceremony. And it's being paid for, at least in part, by tax dollars. Using tax dollars for a religious purpose is a violation of the First Amendment.