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Missouri Prayer Amendment Nears Passage
The Christian Diarist ^ | August 7, 2012 | JP

Posted on 08/07/2012 12:46:01 PM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Missouri voters decide the fate today of a ballot measure, Amendment 2, which would affirm the right of residents of the Show Me State to pray “individually or corporately in a private or public setting.”

The proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution has, of course, provoked much sound and fury from the godless element, as well as those who profess to believe in God, but who want to ban their Creator from the public square.

“Help protect our children from indoctrination and a lifetime of ignorance,” exhorts the nascent Missouri chapter of the atheist Secular Coalition of America.

“Missouri Amendment 2 is completely unnecessary,” claims Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“If Missourians amend their Constitution, they will erode rather than enhance their religious freedom,” opines the New York Times.

These and other foes of Amendment 2 just don’t get it.

The reason the measure almost certainly will be approved today is because Missouri’s Christian majority has decided it will no longer do nothing as the godless, the secularist, the non-sectarian wage unholy war against those who share the faith of this nation’s founders.

Indeed, James Madison, author of the First Amendment, who said the “whole future of American civilization” depended upon the “capacity of each and every one of us” to “sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God,” could never have imagined how hostile this nation would become to the Almighty, and to His only begotten Son.

Would Madison have had a problem with display of a nativity scene in a public library? Would he have objected to crosses marking the graves of Christian war dead at national cemeteries? Would he have considered student prayer at a public school an unconstitutional establishment or religion?

I don’t think so. And neither does Missouri state Rep. Mike McGhee, who sponsored Amendment 2.

McGee consulted for many years with Rev. Terry Hodges, his pastor at First Baptist Church in Odessa, Missouri, before crafting the measure that appears today on the state ballot.

For much of the nation’s first 150 years or so, said Pastor Hodges, those who shared Madison’s Christian faith “enjoyed home field advantage,” However, he added, “That’s changed, and there’s now there’s a hostility to Christians.”

Passage of Amendment 2 will not diminish the freedom from religion the godless, the secularist, the non-sectarian currently enjoy. It simply will “level the playing field,” as Pastor Hodges puts it, for Missouri residents who desire to freely exercise their religion.


TOPICS: Current Events; Prayer; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: constitution; currentevents; missouri; prayeramendment
St. Louis Dispatch poll last week showed 82 prcent of Missouri voters favoring Prayer Amendment.
1 posted on 08/07/2012 12:46:13 PM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Franklin Roosevelt’s D-Day Prayer

June 6, 1944

My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas — whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them—help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.


2 posted on 08/07/2012 12:54:31 PM PDT by bunkerhill7 (!. what??? Who knew? .)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Jesus finds delight in those humble enough to come and feast at His table of grace, where every good thing is provided.
3 posted on 08/07/2012 12:56:10 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (Siri: Gold Baby, Gold!)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
“Help protect our children from indoctrination and a lifetime of ignorance,” .

Yeah! Keep them away from the influence of the flaming Lucifer leftists - far, far away. They could end up aborted, boy raped, race baiter beaten, or robbed by some welfare scrounge.

The best gift the parents could ever give to their children is to teach them the dangers of the left wing agenda. My children are well educated. They know everything the left is trying to do to them.

4 posted on 08/07/2012 1:01:19 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

This story is consistent with my personal experience - that atheism is the least tolerant and most dogmatic religion on planet Earth.


5 posted on 08/07/2012 1:17:25 PM PDT by LaserJock
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
The First Amendment to the US Constitution already gives these protections.

I would vote for it, but the fact that the First Amendment has been perverted so much that this is even necessary makes me think it is little more than a hollow gesture.

6 posted on 08/07/2012 1:18:21 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the collectivists.)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

“Missouri Amendment 2 is completely unnecessary,” claims Americans United for Separation of Church and State

***

Not when the ACLU considers threatening schools with lawsuits when they want to pray or teach creation, SOP.

The schools have cowed at the threat, and this will help them see they don’t need to fear the ACLU. They can tell them to go away.


7 posted on 08/07/2012 1:47:40 PM PDT by ROTB (Live holy, forgive all & pray in Jesus' name. Trust He is willing & able & eager to ANSWER BIG!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I voted against the Amendment. Our religious freedom is already part of our state Constitution & this is not needed. There is concern it will open a can of worms & only add money into the pockets of lawyers because of new lawsuits. This was just a feel good piece of legislation, worthless IMHO.


8 posted on 08/07/2012 1:48:55 PM PDT by PoplarBluffian
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
It appears this amendment will apply to not only Christians but also Rastafarians, Satanists, Muslims, snake-handlers, etc.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

9 posted on 08/07/2012 2:10:53 PM PDT by gdani
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To: gdani

Any religious freedom applies not only to Christians, but also non-Christians. So I imagine some pseudo religions will take advantage of Missouri’s Prayer Amendment.

But let us remember that God “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”


10 posted on 08/07/2012 4:24:27 PM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
This is good. I refuse to think of it as redundant. If the First Amendment was doing such a good job of protecting religious speech, we wouldn't see stories about praying chidren being silenced and crosses and Bibles being banned.

The next thing I'd like to see is a nationawide push for "Right to Worship" laws similar to "Right to Farm" laws. A Right to Worship law would give churches and other religious entities protection from the government declaring their legitimate, lawful and traditional religious practices to be public nuisances. This would prevent the "land use violation" and "noise violation" rules that are often used to persecute churches in liberal areas. It would also prevent liberal munincipalities from using zoning law to stop new church construction.

11 posted on 08/08/2012 11:25:09 AM PDT by jboot (OPSEC. It's a killjoy, but it may save your life someday.)
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