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Just like the 100+ people in my high school marching band didn't ask the one bound for hell if she minded that she was forced to pray to Jesus before every game. I am Jewish and asked to be allowed to leave the room for the prayer (which was done before either home games or before we boarded the bus) or to lead the prayer myself. Neither was granted. I was even scolded for refusing to bow my head and close my eyes.
That's the much more common story in the US.
I doubt it.
While I disagree with how you were treated, I beg to differ in that it is the more common scenario in the US. Also, you were not being "forced to pray to Jesus." A prayer is something private, and if you are not actually praying to Jesus along with the others, you are not even praying to begin with (unless you said your own prayer while the other was going on), much less being forced to pray to a messiah you don't even believe in. And instead of making a scene out of it, you could have just kept quiet and prayed to God instead, or however Jewish people pray (I don't mean that to be crass, I just am not familiar).
Why can't people just make things work for themselves? Figure it out and stop whining. I think this all goes back to personal responsibility yet again, if you don't want to pray, you don't have to, it's up to you, nobody is forcing you to do it, even if you end up listening to someone else praying. How many times did I sit through grace at the dinner table when I did not believe in God? How many times did I have to listen to people talk about it, or listen to a prayer at a public event, or even when my grandpa was in the hospital and their pastor came in and I had to stand there and hold hands with everyone while they prayed? I didn't get all upset about it, I just dealt with it and let my mind wander.
NOBODY can force ANYONE ELSE to pray if they don't want to.
I used to think the same exact thing...when I was a non-believer. There is no request too small or too large for God.
Does that explain why he was so busy helping the Bruins make the Stanley Cup finals that he didn't notice the tornado killing people in Springfield and rolling up the Mass. Pike?
It depends. Certainly people in the stands who want to pray can do so. The facility management itself, if it is not a state-owned facility, can even prompt it.
I am not missing your point because you don't have one - you don't understand where the lines are drawn between Establishment and Free Exercise.
It's all about the existence, or not, of a "governmental nexus." In most cases the players deciding ON THEIR OWN to pray wouldn't create such a nexus, but every case turns on its facts. If they were, for example, encouraged or coerced or influenced to do so by a coach on the State's payroll...that would be a problem.
It's not nearly as black and white or simple as you seem to think it is.
Trust me, you are missing the point and I am not repeating it again. You just don't like what I have to say, since I probably agree with you more than I disagree in regard to the OP.
Does that explain why he was so busy helping the Bruins make the Stanley Cup finals that he didn't notice the tornado killing people in Springfield and rolling up the Mass. Pike?
One has nothing to do with the other.
Let's not get into my interpretation of all the tornadoes, as that would be for the religion forum.
I think it contradicts other provisions on which the Arminians rely.
It's also illogical. Every time a "saved" Calvinist commits apostasy you guys go through this delusional exercise of believing that they never were saved in the first place.
It makes no sense. It implies that our actions have no bearing on our status in the afterlife, so what is the point?
Quote:
Or maybe the ammendment that says nothing about preventing people from praying?
Just read the court opinion. The argument above isn't an argument, it's an expression that you don't understand how our legal system works.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A federal judge in South Texas has banned public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony after the agnostic parents of a senior went to court.
The ruling from Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio came as Medina Valley High School in Castroville prepares for Saturday's graduation.
Biery's order, released Tuesday, was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christa and Danny Schultz on behalf of their son, Corwin, to block use of prayer. The judge says speakers cannot call on audience members to bow their heads, join in prayer or say "amen."
Assistant Superintendent Chris Martinez says school officials will follow the order against public prayer, but they do not believe the district has done anything wrong.
I'm so glad that the Court has come in to protect the rights of those who don't want Christianity shoved in their faces. If the valedictorian wanted to do this, she should have enrolled into a parochial school.
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