The First Amendment states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The bastardization of this clause has led to everything from removing prayer in schools, to prohibiting valedictorians from saying a prayer at high school graduations. To atheists and those wanting to remove any mention of God in any public setting, the clause ends at "establishment of religion". They conveniently omit the phrase "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" portion of the clause. The clause was put there by the founders prohibit the federal government from establishing a state religion, not to remove any vestiges of religion from the public square. A reading of history would show that several of the original 13 states actually had "official" State religions, which the Constitution did not prohibit as it fell under "states rights". Eventually the states voluntarily removed the official state religions, but not because an activist federal court or judge ruled that they were required to, under the Constitution.
Moreover, to claim that somebody, including a priest or pastor who prays in a public forum, wuo ends a prayer with the phrase "in Jesus' name" is akin to government establishing an official religion strains the bounds of common sense.
Hopefully, the U.S. Supreme Court will have wisdom to overturn this completely backwards decision issued by the 4th Circuit.
Appeals Court Rules Against Forsyth County in Prayer Case
Posted by Brian
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