No Jesus Allowed
Human Events just sent me the following action alert:
NEW NATIONAL PETITION to stop banning the name of Jesus in Pennsylvania State-House prayers. Please click, sign, WE WILL FAX your petition automatically to all 253 Pennsylvania Senators and Representatives (saving you hours of labor!)
BREAKING NEWS: Pennsylvania House Speaker bans Jesus Christ from prayers. Heroic Pastor Censored. California City also debates vote to ban Jesus from prayers. “California, Stand Up For Jesus!” State-wide Prayer Rally 5 Aug, 6pm in Lodi, CA.
Dear Friends,
The right to pray publicly “in Jesus name” is under new attack in Pennsylvania and again in California. Please let me explain to you exactly what terrible events just transpired…The Democrat Speaker of the Pennsylvania House Keith R. McCall has just issued (and enforced) a policy which bans the name of Jesus Christ as illegal speech that may not be uttered during voluntary prayers spoken before the Pennsylvania state legislature.
Pastor Gerry Stoltzfoos of Freedom Valley Worship Center in Adams County, PA had been invited to pray the invocation at the State-House on June 30th, but McCall’s office insisted on previewing and censoring a written copy of the prayer beforehand.
Although I understand the fear many religious Americans have to lose the right to worship (God) as they see fit, I have to say that if you truly believe in the separation between church and state – as I do – that it makes sense to support a policy that says that elected officials cannot pray out loud before the Pennsylvania state legislature. As far as I know, Pennsylvania is not a theocratic state. Elected officials, whether they are Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or something else altogether, can pray in private. There is no reason for them to do so publicly, before and with the entire legislature.
However, allowing prayer but outlawing the word ‘Jesus’ from it is strange. If you allow people to pray before the legislature, as was the with the invocation, then let them pray as they see fit. Christians should then be allowed to mention Jesus, Muslims Mohammed, Buddhists the Buddha, and so forth.
As said, the best thing to do, though, is to simply make the entire government secular.
While I’m inclined to agree, you’re going to find yourself in the minority, I think. Even Congress typically holds a (non-denominational) prayer in the morning before starting business, I believe. As far as I know, it’s a long-standing tradition.
And it’s not likely to go away any time soon.
I know (and don’t care about being in the ‘minority’) – and I’m not extremely passionate about it myself either. But these Human Events people clearly are.
Prayers: I know, they have done so for a long time but, it’s not exactly a sign of being a secular state / country – so it seems logical (to me at least) to abolish it altogether.
Besides, it also strikes me as quite hypocritical to (rightly!) complain about other countries that may become less secular, and more theocratic, while at the same time starting important days in the legislature off (and normal days as well) with a prayer of one kind or another.