Posted on 05/05/2014 8:17:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prayers that open town council meetings do not violate the Constitution even if they routinely stress Christianity, a divided Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The court said in 5-4 decision that the content of the prayers is not significant as long as they do not denigrate non-Christians or proselytize.
The ruling by the court's conservative majority was a victory for the town of Greece, N.Y., outside of Rochester. The Obama administration sided with the town.
In 1983, the court upheld an opening prayer in the Nebraska legislature and said that prayer is part of the nation's fabric, not a violation of the First Amendment. Monday's ruling was consistent with the earlier one.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Atheists?? As John Adams said..."That's their problem".
I suspect all these prayers are actually directed to an "intended audience" of God.
Forget 50 Senators. We need 67, so we can impeach some of those lawless Marxist judges appointed by Obama. If he gets one more vote on that court, it will be devastating to American jurisprudence.
I’m an atheist, and I support this decision. In fact it should have been 9-0, not 5-4.
I agree....I can’t see any logic in the 4 votes.
AH WAS THAT ANCIENT GREECE..or Modern Day Greece??
While reporting this ABC Radio News referred to the SCOTUS as having a ‘conservative majority’. snort.
She’s missing something in her argument...Those elected officials are the REPRESENTATIVES of the People of the United States.
By doing so, they rely on the ignorance of many citizens of America's founding history and of the ideas of liberty which were strongly held and advocated by the man (Jefferson) who authored the Declaration of Independence, with its recognition of a "Creator," of "the laws of nature and of nature's God," of "Divine Providence," and of "Supreme judge of the world," as well as the actual meaning and context of his letter to the Baptists--whose phrase about the "wall of separation" they love to twist and cite as the basis of their prejudice and tyranny against religious expression in the public square!
Perhaps these "progressives" might wish to read and be honest enough to cite this portion of Thomas Jefferson's letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper:
"In our village of Charlottesville, there is a good degree of religion, with a small spice only of fanaticism. We have four sects, but without either church or meeting-house. . . .As for Jefferson's views on a university setting as a place appropriate for open exchange of ideas and of unthreatened expression of religious thought, and to correct a then-false impression that the institution was against religion, he stated:. . . The court-house is the common temple, one Sunday in the month to each. Here, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, meet together, join in hymning their Maker, listen with attention and devotion to each others' preachers, and all mix in society with perfect harmony.
". . . .In our university you know there is no Professorship of Divinity. A handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that this is an institution, not merely of no religion, but against all religion. Occasion was taken at the last meeting of the Visitors, to bring forward an idea that might silence this calumny, which weighed on the minds of some honest friends to the institution. In our annual report to the legislature, after stating the constitutional reasons against a public establishment of any religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of encouraging the different religious sects to establish, each for itself, a professorship of their own tenets, on the confines of the university, so near as that their students may attend the lectures there, and have the free use of our library, and every other accommodation we can give them; preserving, however, their independence of us and of each other. This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in an institution professing to give instruction in all useful sciences. I think the invitation will be accepted, by some sects from candid intentions, and by others from jealousy and rivalship. And by bringing the sects together, and mixing them with the mass of other students, we shall soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and make the general religion a religion of peace, reason, and morality." - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper
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