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Prayer banned from veterans' funerals
BizPacReview.com ^ | Michael Dorstewitz

Posted on 08/26/2011 1:36:52 PM PDT by cap10mike

In recent decades and while citing “separation of church and state,” religious clubs have been banned from public schools, nativity scenes and menorahs have disappeared from the public square, and references to prayer have been removed from the minutes of public meetings. In the last couple of months, the “separation” battle finally reached the level of the “Theatre of the Absurd.” Arleen Ocasio, Director of the Houston National Cemetery and with the approval of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs now bans graveside prayer at veterans’ funerals.

(Excerpt) Read more at bizpacreview.com ...


TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Religion
KEYWORDS: freedom; marxistcoup; prayer; religion; veterans
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1 posted on 08/26/2011 1:36:55 PM PDT by cap10mike
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To: cap10mike

This seals it. I am not getting buried in a national Cemetary. God in all his fullness is more important than this Nation, not matter how much I love it.


2 posted on 08/26/2011 1:47:53 PM PDT by vpintheak (Democrats: Robbing humans of their dignity 1 law at a time)
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To: cap10mike

What ever happened to “Congress shall mall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ... “?

If it’s Good enough for Congress to be told to keep their hands off of, it’s certainly good enough for a PUNK cemetery director to keep Her hands off of.

This is not just heart breaking. It’s utterly, & Criminally reprehensible.


3 posted on 08/26/2011 1:52:08 PM PDT by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: vpintheak

Is this for real? We can’t be buried as Christians
in a National Cemetary? Has our country turned into
Bizarro World?


4 posted on 08/26/2011 1:52:19 PM PDT by RitchieAprile
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To: cap10mike

The funeral service belongs to the veteran’s family, not the cemetary. Seems to me that this is the polar opposite of so called “separation of church and state”. It is the government interjecting itself into religion.


5 posted on 08/26/2011 1:53:34 PM PDT by RatRipper (I'll ride a turtle to work every day before I buy anything from Government Motors.)
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To: cap10mike

This is, most likely, a response to the Westboro Baptist Church activities at military funerals.


6 posted on 08/26/2011 2:01:56 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: RatRipper

Would it be sacreligious for the vets family to tell Ms. Ocasio to go eff herself while they say a final prayer over their loved one? They ought to just go ahead and say the prayers anyway. Its free speech.


7 posted on 08/26/2011 2:02:12 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: cap10mike

(Sniff!! Sniff!!)

This story doesn’t smell right.


8 posted on 08/26/2011 2:05:41 PM PDT by Mr. Quarterpanel (I am not an actor, but I play one on TV)
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To: RitchieAprile

And people wonder why this Country is going to hell. And it is. It’s going to continue down this path until people repent.


9 posted on 08/26/2011 2:05:49 PM PDT by vpintheak (Democrats: Robbing humans of their dignity 1 law at a time)
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To: cap10mike

Whatever happened to courage?

Ignore them.
Pray where you like, as loud as you like and let them prosecute you!


10 posted on 08/26/2011 2:07:49 PM PDT by G Larry (I dream of a day when a man is judged by the content of his character)
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To: cap10mike

Sorry, I’m praying over my veterans. Out loud. Let them arrest me.


11 posted on 08/26/2011 2:09:59 PM PDT by FrogMom (There is no such thing as an honest democrat!)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

What’s she going to do, send in armed Feds to arrest the praying miscreants?

Not saying “let’s you and him fight” but there needs to be some open defiance of this dykey dingbat.

High school grads defied a principal’s ban against prayer and shouted it to the high heavens. No one was arrested, no one failed to get their diploma. Those puffed-up educrats aren’t that stupid. Especially when everyone has a cell camera.

But beware, cops are confiscating those at public events on the whim & orders of some official. Things are going to get dicier going into 2012. The rule of law is being shoved aside by the rule of “because I said so!”.


12 posted on 08/26/2011 2:10:44 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("Deport all Muslims. Nuke Mecca now. Death to Islam means freedom for all mankind.")
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To: vpintheak

(This seals it. I am not getting buried in a national Cemetary.

I participate with a organization that does military funerals. I have done funerals at Arlington and Ft Indiantown Gap. Prayer is ALWAYS included.
The Houston thing was one person over stepping their authority and is being dealt with in court.


13 posted on 08/26/2011 2:12:48 PM PDT by SECURE AMERICA (Where can I sign up for the New American Revolution and the Crusades 2012?)
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To: Mr. Quarterpanel

It’s true. Happened in Houston. It’s an old story, I guess a month or so old.

Ocasio has been the subject of a civil suit, I think. but she really did try to stop veteran’s families from mentionng God.

then she said it would not happen again. then a guy went undercover to a vet’s funeral and again, they told his family they could not mention God, hence the civil suit.

sorry no links.


14 posted on 08/26/2011 2:19:34 PM PDT by squarebarb (ADE IN 1948.)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Say the prayer and double-dog dare them to throw them to arrest them for it.


15 posted on 08/26/2011 2:20:40 PM PDT by RatRipper (I'll ride a turtle to work every day before I buy anything from Government Motors.)
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To: SECURE AMERICA
SECURE AMERICA wrote:
The Houston thing was one person over stepping their authority and is being dealt with in court.
I hope your right, but I fear that it's more likely that this one person overstepping their authority will be supported and ratified by the courts, and this will become policy at all national cemetaries.

When we buried my father, a World War II vet, a Catholic priest came to the cemetary for a graveside service after the funeral mass. The same was repeated a few years later when my mother passed, and she was buried with dad at the Florida National Cemetary in Bushnell, FL.

This policy can not stand. But I don't know if the black robed bandits will see it that way. Too many courts in this country are convinced that the first amendment guarantees freedom from religion.

16 posted on 08/26/2011 2:24:26 PM PDT by cc2k ( If having an "R" makes you conservative, does walking into a barn make you a horse's (_*_)?)
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To: cap10mike
"Prayer banned from veterans' funerals"

Just business as usual in the Obamanation.

17 posted on 08/26/2011 2:28:06 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: RatRipper
The funeral service belongs to the veteran’s family, not the cemetary.

I think this is about other groups (not the family) attending the funerals.

"Subsequently, defendant Ocasio asked the Memorial Ladies to endeavor to respect particular family members religious preferences, and to provide only general condolences without religious reference unless the Memorial Ladies were aware of a family's religious preference and expressions of a specific religious nature would be appropriate," the document reads."

VA denies censorship at Houston National Cemetery

18 posted on 08/26/2011 2:33:20 PM PDT by Doe Eyes
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To: cap10mike
This is not, in fact, true. There are groups that want to say Christian prayers at funerals even when the veteran is not Christian and the family doesn't want Christian prayers. The groups are suing the VA to force families to include prayer during the burial services of veterans. Is that really something we want to support?
19 posted on 08/26/2011 2:40:32 PM PDT by drjimmy
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# ‘em. Pray anyway.


20 posted on 08/26/2011 2:43:27 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been Redistributed. Here's your damn Change!)
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