Senior: Take Prayer Out Of Graduation

Over the last seven days…

Florida: Pastor Samuel Darin Taylor charged with defrauding his church of over $250K.
New York: Father James J. McDevitt charged with the sexual abuse of six boys.
Russia: U.S.-based Pastor Hio Sun Pak jailed for 18 months for bribing immigration officials to overlook illegal Chinese labor used to build his church.
Florida: Pastor Donnell Dewitt Williams charged with money laundering after probe reveals $400K in loans processed in the namea of his congregants.
Tennessee: Pastor John Franklin McCarroll charged with indecent exposure at public park. Bonus: Glory hole involved. Extra bonus: McCarroll frequently preached against gay marriage. Extra hilarious bonus: The motto of McCarroll’s ministry is “Come as you are, but don’t leave like you came.“
Texas: Living Praise Christian Academy Prinicpal Darrell Dean Dunn charged with child molestation.
South Carolina: Pastor Leon Dizzley convicted of money laundering for selling nine luxury cars to drug dealers.
New York: Wife of Pastor Mike Bowers charged with 14 felony counts of defrauding a United Nations fund intended to help women in Iraq.
Maryland: Father Aaron Joseph Cote found guilty of child molestation.
Pennsylvania: Christian songwriter and schoolteacher Heather Lynn Zoe charged with having sex with minors. Bonus: Songs on Zoe’s debut CD include Face Down and Over And Over.
New York: “Prosperity gospel” motivational speaker Jeffrey Locker found strangled in Harlem. Police suspect the accomplices of the prostitute that Locker had been patronizing.

This week’s winners:
India: Father Thomas Kottoor, Father Jose Puthrukayil, and Sister Mary Sephy charged with murdering Sister Mary Abhaya after she walked in on them having a threeway. Police say the Holy Trinity beat Sister Abhaya with an axe handle and threw her into a convent well where she drowned.
Labels: religion, This Week In Holy Crimes

First, good on Jacob for standing up for his beliefs. Everyone has the right to do so.

Take the below how you will.

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An insight from at a little known but legal document written in the late 1700s explicitly reveals the secular nature of the U.S. goverenment to a foreign nation. Officially called the “Treaty of peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli, of Barbary,“ most refer to it as simply the Treaty of Tripoli. In Article 11, it states:

“As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.“

Joel Barlow wrote the original English version of the treaty, including Amendment 11. Barlow forwarded the treaty to U.S. legislators for approval in 1797. Timothy Pickering, the secretary of state, endorsed it and John Adams concurred (now during his presidency), sending the document on to the Senate. The Senate approved the treaty on June 7, 1797, and officially ratified by the Senate with John Adams signature on 10 June, 1797. All during this multi-review process, the wording of Article 11 never raised the slightest concern. The treaty even became public through its publication in The Philadelphia Gazette on 17 June 1797.
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JLS - If you want prayer in schools so badly, make sure your kids and grandkids go to Christian schools. Christians have their own school systems. These are public schools.  They are for ALL.  Not just Christians. 

Give it a few years.  The “bible belt” has been fraying at the seams for the last couple decades.  What will you do when Christianity is no longer the majority?  More and more families are like mine. More and more non-christians are coming to America.  Used to be “no Catholics need apply”. 
I’m all for the pledge of allegience AS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN - without “under God” that was added during the McCarthy Red Scare. 
You have a rather sad attitude about what respect for your country and patriotism means.  There are many ways to serve one’s country - the military is only one.  Serving in the military doesn’t make you any more a citizen than the person who volunteers at their local library or school or soup kitchen or election board.  Or who doesn’t volunteer for anything at all.  The person who goes to work, earns a living, pays taxes, is just as much a citizen as any other person born in this country.  Christians have no special rights and priviledges than non-Christians. 
Were you one of those people who were upset at the criticisms of the last president?  One of those who was upset that many people didn’t “respect the office” because they didn’t agree with what he was doing?  Where is your respect for another EQUAL branch of the US government - the judiciary?  Just because you don’t like what they decided?  It’s still the law.  The law of this country. We are not under mob rule, or majority rule.  Our laws are set up to give the smallest minority the same rights as the largest majority.
I ask you again - what would you want the schools to do if your area became majority Hindu?  Or Muslim?  I say these two because where my folks live, the public schools are now at least equally Hindu and non-Hindu, if not majority Hindu.  There are schools near other family members that are majority Muslim students.  They are areas that nobody would have expected Christians to not be the only religion just a generation ago.  It could very well happen where you live.  So, if the majority of students were Hindu, would you be willing to stand for a Hindu prayer? 
It’s very easy to get all self-righteous when you are in the majority.

To da broad. This is in good taste(no pun intended)but your family sounds like a Heinz57 commercial for religions and non-religions, but that’s not the story here. If you saw the news last night the principal said there’s nothing that states the students can’t lead in prayer at graduation, so I hope they put little master wiccan and his wiccan family in their little wiccan place. That area is a Bible Belt area. They may not be monetarily rich but they are rich in their Christain faith and belief’s. I’m old school like a lot of others, I believe in prayer in the school, the pledge of alligence, and a good paddling when needed. You didn’t have the crap you have today in school when I was in school in the 50’s-60’s. My family has also served in the United States military since the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom/Endurance, and now Afghanistan. 27 were killed in action and another 13 wounded in action including myself saving 2 trapped marines from 7 Vietcong who had them trapped. I have fought in two wars, my father in 2 wars, my sons now in 2 battle fronts but we have all been devoted Christains and devoted to the freedom of this country and what it was founded on. You sound the same age as me and girls were never discouraged from going into the military when we were growing up. They just weren’t allowed to be combat infantry or pilots back then. Mainly administrative, doctors, or nurses. I have a cousin graduating from Southeastern and the vast majority of seniors are really upset at this kid. He said he was always stirring the pot about something when things didn’t go his way at school. I guess the student speakers are going to say prayers since the clergy can’t be there. I know I would lead everyone there in prayer and those that were offended could step out in the hall and come back in after it was over. Everyone says the Supreme Court has made it a law. We haven’t had a trusted or honorable Supreme Court that represents the vast majority of American citizens in decades. So if you are Pagen (Roman, Norse, Gaellic,
Swedish or whatever) and you back the Wiccan family why don’t you start your own school systems and call them Wicgens or Pagcans and you can do your own thing at graduations. These are my beliefs and opinions and you have yours. A retired LtCDR Special Forces Combat Member and proud of it.

In reply to an earlier poster, who seemed to think I couldn’t spell and he has more right to citizenship than I or anyone else:

My father served in WWII, Navy, both in the Pacific and Atlantic fleets, and was present for the surrender of Japan.  My brothers served during Viet Nam - one was a Green Beret, one was in SAC.  My nephew is currently in the Navy.  When I was growing up, girls were discouraged from joining the military.  My father was a nominal Catholic - he attended when he had to.

I graduated high school.  I have attended both trade school and college.  I have a husband and a teen aged son. 

My screen name is NOT “the board” (I have no idea where you pulled that out of).  It is DaBroad.  An older gentleman once referred to me as a “right stand-up broad”, and from him it was a complement. 

I am a pagan.  I follow the path of my paternal ancestors in far northern Europe.  My son follows the path of his paternal ancestors, the Norse gods.  My husband is a deist.  My Mother is Byzantine Catholic.  One brother is Roman Catholic.  The other is Buddhist.