In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled today that the practice of offering predominantly Christian prayers before the start of government meetings does not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The press is describing the split on the bench as one between “conservatives” and “liberals.” But notably, it is also largely a split between Christians and Jews, with five of the six Christian justices joining the majority, and all three Jewish justices signing on to the dissent.
No doubt judicial philosophy had something to do with the split, but I’m not sure that the Christian members of the court fully appreciate the depth and scope of our nation’s inherent religious bigotry toward non-Christians. Or if they do, they just don’t give a shit.
“No one can fairly read the prayers from Greece’s town meetings as anything other than explicitly Christian — constantly and exclusively so,” Kagan said. “The prayers betray no understanding that the American community is today, as it long has been, a rich mosaic of religious faiths.”
The legal tussle began in 2007, following eight years of nothing but Christian prayers in the town of nearly 100,000 people outside Rochester. Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, a Jew and an atheist, took the board to federal court and won by contending that its prayers – often spiced with references to Jesus, Christ and the Holy Spirit — aligned the town with one religion.
Once the legal battle was joined, town officials canvassed widely for volunteer prayer-givers and added a Jewish layman, a Wiccan priestess and a member of the Baha’i faith to the mix. Stephens, meanwhile, awoke one morning to find her mailbox on top of her car, and part of a fire hydrant turned up in her swimming pool.
And no. No kid has ever had the shit beaten out of him for refusing to participate in a Christian prayer.
Perhaps if our court’s papist majority had a firmer grasp on the history of religious intolerance in America, they’d have greater appreciation for the often uncomfortable experience of our nation’s religious minorities.
Um, the Court’s three women were in dissent, not just the Court’s three Jews. Clearly you overlooked the War On Women angle. It’s a bunch of privileged men dissing women, cloaking the disrespect in prayer.
Christians v. Jews won’t get you anywhere this year. This year it’s either War On Women or Koch Brothers.
Legislative Prayer Goes Back to the Supreme Court
And this time, the Obama administration is on the side of prayer.
But the really big surprise came this week when the Obama administration filed its own brief on the defendant’s behalf. The administration did not need to say anything at all about this case.
http://www.slate.com/articles/.....t_can.html
“I pray to Jesus every night.”
Senator Barack Obama, 2008
By a wide margin, American voters say it’s OK to have prayer in official, public meetings. In the most recent national survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, 73% percent of voters say “prayer at public meetings is fine as long as the public officials are not favoring some beliefs over others.” Just one-quarter (23%) say “public meetings shouldn’t have any prayers at all because prayers by definition suggest one belief or another.” Republicans are significantly more likely to favor public prayer (88%-10%) than Democrats, but even Democrats by a large margin say prayer should be allowed (60%-36%). The national survey showed no significant differences between men and women, whites and nonwhites, or in different age groups.
http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2014/letuspray/
“letuspray”. Heh.
To paraphrase Goldy
http://horsesass.org/republica.....us-senate/
I suppose one could infer @3 that liberal SCOTUS justices “are not on the side of the vast majority of Americans”.
Not a fan of free speech eh?
As long as it’s open to all, I’m good with it. Personally, I would rather open it up, then shut it down. It will be interesting see what happens when a muslim imam, or a humanist, or a scientologist to ask to speak.
Annie Savoy: I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn’t work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball, and it’s never boring… which makes it like sex. There’s never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn’t have the best year of his career. Making love is like hitting a baseball: you just gotta relax and concentrate. Besides, I’d never sleep with a player hitting under .250… not unless he had a lot of RBIs and was a great glove man up the middle. You see, there’s a certain amount of life wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when I’ve got a ballplayer alone, I’ll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him, and the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. ‘Course, a guy’ll listen to anything if he thinks it’s foreplay. I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe, and pretty. ‘Course, what I give them lasts a lifetime; what they give me lasts 142 games. Sometimes it seems like a bad trade. But bad trades are part of baseball – now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God’s sake? It’s a long season and you gotta trust it. I’ve tried ’em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.
Why do liberals hate baseball? So un-American.
@5 See #6.
@7. Are you stupid? Annie Savoy is a fictional character. What’s next, quoting the gospel of Taxi Driver?
@ 9
You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?
Hey Bob@10,,
Here’s something to make your head explode:
KAPOW! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
@ 11
Hello again, YLB. Nice to see nothing has changed. Only six exclamation points?
Ever the cheerleader, I see.
Matthew 6:1-34
“And when you pray, you must not be like
Travisthe hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.”Luke 18:10-14
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 5:16
“But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”
…….
LOL! What’s wrong Bob – you don’t support the common schlub getting a better shake?
Course you don’t – it doesn’t play well within your “tribe”.. A nurse making more money?
2.66 MILLION nurses out there!
That’s a threat to your pocket!
KA-BOOOM!
Since Muslims consider Jesus a prophet, they probably won’t mind Christian prayers. And Jews don’t matter because there are so few of us, and we killed Jesus anyway so we’re lucky we can even be in the same room as Christians in this (Scalia-titled) Christian country.
@7 We don’t hate the game, we love the game. We only hate the fans.
@13 Yes, you absolutely must go sneaking off to pray in a corner, or God won’t listen to you. This is what the Supreme Court majority doesn’t understand.
What ever happened to the constitution?
“The “establishment of religion” clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion to another … in the words of Jefferson, the [First Amendment] clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between church and State’ … That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.”
Everson vs board of Education
Activist religious (right wing) judges ignore the entire judicial precedent on this issue so that their narrow religious preference can be the preferred “state religion”.
It’s sure interesting how the religiously intolerant HA DUMMOCRETINS jump aboard and mysteriously quoteth the Bible.
@19. It that like Conservatives claiming they have compassion and then voting against food stamps? It that like Conservatives claiming they follow the words of Jesus and then are for the death penalty?
Once again worser proves his a loony toon with no facts…
Again Puddy uses Mother Jones… not a libtard site to factually KABLAMMMO worser@19.
Seem DUMMOCRETINS tried to play politics again instead of actually dealing above board and got smacked!
Death Penalty? It’s in the Bible!
I’d prefer the government – federal, state and local – to simply stay out of religion.
@21…
That farm bill and the gutting of food stamp for millions of struggling Americans was brought to you by the Republicans. The party that brought you the (unfunded) Iraq War, Medicare Plan D, the Bush Tax Cuts.
The puddypiggy is a lying sack of shit.
@21 “Death Penalty? It’s in the Bible!”
No, it’s in the Old Testament, which Jesus was sent to earth to fix. Sheesh. Why do these things have to be explained to you?
@21, the dems had to go through those games because of Conservatives, who would rather families go hungry and yet Conservatives claim they have compassion.
Death Penalty? It’s in the Bible!
The bible also says you can own slaves.
Do you do that too? Eat Pork? Mix your fibers?
What’s that 6th commandment agian? oh yeah
You shall not murder
Would Jesus pull the switch?
Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J.
http://salt.claretianpubs.org/.....ejean.html
It’s an interesting read.