We read:
"A federal judge in Texas ruled Thursday that the government cannot prohibit a Houston preacher from saying “Jesus Christ” while delivering an invocation at an upcoming Memorial Day ceremony to be held the national cemetery in the city.
The Rev. Scott Rainey, the pastor at Living Word Church of the Nazerene, has given the invocation at the Houston National Cemetery for the last two years, each time ended the prayer with a reference to Jesus.
But a month ago, Arleen Ocasio, the director of the cemetery, asked to review Rainey's prayer before the ceremony this Monday, according to court papers. The pastor agreed, but four hours later, she responded with an email saying that “while it was very well written” she asked that it commemorate “veterans from all cultures and religious beliefs” -- in other words, not just those who believe in Jesus.
Rainey called Ocasio, and she told him that if he didn't change the prayer, he would not be allowed to deliver the Memorial Day remarks, Rainey said in his lawsuit against the federal cemetery.
The pastor eventually sued the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department to be allowed to refer to Jesus Christ at the invocation.
Judge Lynn N. Hughes sided with Rainey, ruling that censorship and religious discrimination violate the First Amendment.
Source
7 comments:
WOW! An actual sane and logical decision from a Mexas judge! I mean, if this kind of crazyness keeps up, the next thing you know is they'll actually start inforcing the immigrations laws down there. Um,... well OK, maybe i went a bit too far with that one.
The Christians are foolishly paving the way for the Islamists to claim that religion already has a voice and privilege in government affairs. The Founding Fathers wisely tried to prevent that by having religion separated from government. But it's probably too late now.
Perhaps you should take another look at the Constitution, and upon doing so, please advise us as to the exact page that contains the words, "separation of church and state", or any other phrase that says the two must be separate.
2:13 Perhaps you should take another look at what I wrote. It did not refer to the Constitution, but to what the Founding Fathers discussed, and there you will find references to the separation of religion from government.
I actually believe both sides are right.
I agree completely that any prayer for the fallen ought include veterans of all religious persuasions (or none).
However, you cannot invite a Christian pastor to say the prayer and then forbod him from mentioning Jesus Christ.
Depends if the Christian pastor is invited to a multi-faith or general occasion, then he should be more "general" in his address if he has any sense of diplomacy or humility.
A victory for free speech,free religion and common sense GOOD
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