Maryland’s War Against Prayer
An engineer friend of mine had a saying that “one point in time does not a trend make.” When it comes to one issue in the state of Maryland, however, I believe we have enough events, all within the span of a few weeks, to declare a trend; the act of prayer is officially under siege in Maryland.
I’ve previously recounted the hissy fit Senate President Mike Miller had on the state Senate floor when a Christian pastor uttered the name “Jesus” during the invocation, as well as the rejected attempt by the University of Maryland’s legislative body, the school senate, to permanently remove the invocation from their commencement ceremonies.
We now have a report out of Prince George’s County that the grossly misnamed American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which only seems to defend the most offensive speech while trying to suppress the rest, sent a letter to the school board “requesting” they refrain from praying at the beginning of their board meetings. The prayer is non-denominational, which as I’ve expressed in the past makes it essentially useless because you’re praying to a nameless God; you may as well be praying to thin air.
The lesson I want you to take away from these events, however, is how determined the liberals and their agents are to drive prayer and all other expressions of faith back behind the doors of the churches, mosques and synagogues.
Even there, our practices of faith may not be safe if pastors can be arrested for speaking out against homosexuality as a sin and accused of inciting hate. It has happened in Canada and Sweden, two supposedly democratic nations, so those who scoff at the notion are either naive or deliberately lulling Americans into a false sense of security.
As evidence, the U.S. Congress last week voted down amendments to expanded hate crimes legislation that added protections for religious expression, claiming such expression was already protected under current law. Well, victims of violence regardless of how they identify themselves are also protected under current law, so why create a special class of protection for select identity groups? Liberal logic is an oxymoron.
If our representatives in Congress honor the oath they took to uphold the U.S. Constitution, including the First Amendment’s guarantees of free exercise of religion, what’s the problem with reinforcing our commitment to freedom of religion in this legislation?
Don’t take us for fools; you don’t believe in the free exercise of religion, and neither do the special interest puppet masters who pull your strings by financing your campaigns and ensuring you get to keep the power, perks and privileges of the office you hold.
It is the community of faith that sears your collective consciences and troubles your sponsors who want to reengineer society so man replaces God and feelings are glorified over reason. That makes us a threat.
Their answer to the obstacle the faithful place before them is to abuse the establishment clause of the First Amendment, and what is happening in the no-longer Free State is played out all across this nation. The ACLU and others of their ilk know that public prayer isn’t the establishment of a state religion, nor is the the display of a Nativity scene during Christmas or the Ten Commandments, one of the cornerstones of the law, in a courtroom. None of these things are forcing anyone to adopt Christianity as a national religion. Frankly, Christianity itself is so segmented by denominations that no one church could ever declare prominence over the others and have itself established as a state religion. That argument is a smokescreen and a lie.
Are people’s egos so inflated yet tenuous at the same time, like a balloon filled to the bursting point, that a public expression of faith, even the pabulum of ecumenical faith, will cause them to explode? A Jewish friend of mine who, as a conservative, often finds himself at events where prayers to Christ are routinely given, says if a prayer invoking another faith’s deity greatly offends him, maybe he’s not secure in his own.
The irreligionists certainly aren’t secure in their plan to replace God with man, so they hunt and scan for public religious expression in order to attack it and drive it underground. How else do you explain the ACLU getting involved over a brief prayer to no God in particular in a county school board meeting that’s typically held only twice a month? Don’t the self-proclaimed defenders of the 1st Amendment have bigger fish to fry?
Apparently not, it seems. Even though I live in Maryland and could be offending someone’s fragile sense of self, I’ll pray for them.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:07 am
” Well, victims of violence regardless of how they identify themselves are also protected under current law, so why create a special class of protection for select identity groups? Liberal logic is an oxymoron.”
Truer words have never been spoken, this, I find to be, is the most troubling of all the troubling issues that the left trumpets. It strikes at the very heart of the unique relationship that our country has always had with our Creator. The reliance upon and faith in Providence that undergirds our institutions is the key to our success.
The more we withdraw our faith, the less worthy of His grace we become. Excellent article Ron.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
[...] Maryland’s War Against Prayer (Reflections Blog) In 2010 many folks, including me, hope to see Ron Miller replace Mike Miller in the Maryland State [...]
April 28th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
All I can think of is this …
“A Jewish friend of mine who, as a conservative, often finds himself at events where prayers to Christ are routinely given, says if a prayer invoking another faith’s deity greatly offends him, maybe he’s not secure in his own.”
Hmm, who would that be?
I stand by those words 110% – Someone else praying in my presence to their God does not diminish my own faith, nor does it present a threat to my beliefs. In fact, I am thankful I live in a nation where we are all free to pray to our different Gods without fear of reprisal – at least for now.
How many Americans are truly aware of what things are like outside this country? In Europe, my people have to hide their Judaism in the face of a rising tide of antisemitism. A friend of mine who lived in France as recently as two years ago (in my defense, I became friends with her when she still lived in America) told me that the Jews in her neighborhood kept very quiet and had to sneak in the side entrance to a very modest synagogue made in someone’s house. She told me it was not the same there as it is here, where I can walk around proudly displaying my Chai on my neck and where others can wear their Yarmulkas in public.
In some countries, they are hunting and killing Christian missionaries even as I type this. Their crime? Being Christian and spreading the gospel.
Prayer and religion are deeply personal and important parts of people’s lives. And to think that in this nation, founded on inalienable rights granted to us at conception by God, we should find those very liberties under assault is beyond comprehension.
I stand firm in my support of all people having the maximum freedom to practice whatever their religion is – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc… even if I do not subscribe to that belief myself. For I recognize the truth in the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
” Liberal logic is an oxymoron.” I’ll agree with that.
What could be the promimate cause of this special subcategory legal
agenda is hard for me to say. But the guessed underlying cause is
guessed to be revenge, political opportunism, and long term fighting
of village vs. town vs. gown. This is true with religion as well other
areas. Way back circa 1920 there was a study about religion in
upper education, especially professorships and the like. Something
like 17% were complete atheists and other unusual anomolies for
the time, sort of an early pattern which has since been expanded.
From what I can see, this is merely a campaign into the dreaded
heartland, using debated legal interpretations of the word “is” with our constitutional framework to foil cherished enemy beliefs, libraries as weapons, and other time tested methods, to use imagery their perceived vantage point.
Back in the ’20s, Dorothy Parker and colleagues had reoccurring comic discussions centered at maliciously poking fun of these core values at the Algonquin Round Table. Funny thing was that most of these people were originally from the same backwoods areas. Things like that. But now it is stronger. For example, the huge scrawled graffiti on a Marin county WWII concrete coastal gun fortress I came across a couple of years ago, “kill all straights”. That is unsustainable california for you. And organized conservative religion is believed to be the belly of the beast by many of these same collective individuals of whatever shade, variation or proclivity.
Probably a sizable number of them have been hounded in an adolescent or younger adult past in the middle countryside, and now they have blood in their eyes. Many also seem to simply want a good blood cause and this one is handily emotionally felt by them as being just. I believe the inroads to be nothing less than a concerted and intentional effort, though it never seemed worth getting to know their groups well enough to see this up close. I do remember things like being 15, working on a government YCC job and being paid to go to a library debate where afterward the ecologists rallied if not shepherded the young in an emotional clap trap method, to force the issue. No such methods on the other side. Another example, several years ago my mother then aged 68 or so was also paid at government expense to see an employee wide attendance event. The main billing was a troupe of homosexual activists (Gay & Lesbian Alliance or some such title, it is recalled) whose only theme clearly was to steadily blast and lampoon conservative Christians and whose actors call out for support from the audience for the denouncing of these kinds of evangelicals, all on county government bus barn property. And for perspective, this coming from conservative/libertarian unbeliever who thinks these so called organizers vastly underestimate the power of faith and religion to society in general, even on the east and left coast. And do you still wonder why public prayer is actively wished to be thought of as a largely undesirable public privilege (by them)? It is a picture that needs no caption. The media and significant others are largely against any other action, by-the-way.
It is not called the heartland for nothing, and one good strategy is to nullify and let liberals simply spin their wheels. These are not fair minded
mobs. And no, the intentional effort is not being very effectively nullified at present. There is a lot of friction.
Anyway, good writing Ron. You made me think/remember. Keep it up.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Thank You Ron.
During my Toastmasters club meeting this week, it was nice to participate in an invocation in a public building. We even did so in the name of Jesus Christ.
I’m always flabbergasted during Christmas time when it is such a big deal that Christ be taken out of the “holiday” season, in order to not offend anyone. For me, when someone of another faith, with different beliefs, perhaps a different God, or name for God, wishes me well in the context of their particular holiday and salutation, I take it as a compliment, not an offense.
That is what freedom of religion and expression is about; to be confident and comfortable enough with your religious beliefs to be able to practice it and share it with others without fear of condemnation or retribution.
Our founding fathers did believe in God; in fact they put their trust in him. Just take a look on our currency or walk the mall in Washington DC and look at the inscriptions all over our national monuments. Yes, they were against a theocracy, but very much for an American religion that embraces and honors God and respects His natural law. They even instituted public schools to teach Judeo-Christian values and our founding principles that define the proper role of government in our free society.