Christian Group Readies to Defend National Day of Prayer Against Lawsuit

Rev_Jim »

Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:00 am Agree: 5   Disagree: 0

Up the thread someone said..
I think the reason for the uproar is simple, there are people who are trying desperately to make it illegal to pray in public, share the Gospel on the street, etc.
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This has nothing to do with praying in public. The issue isn't praying in public, it's having the government sponsor prayers.

I think people who are so ardent about government sponsored prayer have not always thought this through. I know that in Michigan at one point when John Engler, an extreme right wing governor, was elected, there was a significant effort to circumvent the constitution and create a time for prayer at the beginning of school. People said that kids were prevented from praying; actually, kids, staff, everyone was perfectly free to pray, the schools were not free to sponsor prayer time.

Our local clergy group where I was a pastor then wanted to support this move; I pointed out that if we had government sponsored prayer, it would inevitably mean the government would have to be neutral as to the source of the prayer. So there would be Buddhist prayer, Muslim prayer, Wiccan prayer, etc. No one seemed to have thought of that consequence.

The framers wisely said the Federal government must not sponsor religious activity or favor one religious group over another. I support this in part because as a Christian, I don't want to find public support for non-Christian prayer.