The ACLU is at it again! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy.../06/25/AR2008062501549.html?hpid=sec-religion :icon_rage
The ACLU is at it again! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy.../06/25/AR2008062501549.html?hpid=sec-religion :icon_rage
People have been talking about this for years. I don't see why anyone should really care.
Unless someone made comments to her then I can't see how she was pressured. What she's really saying is, "Everyone else was doing it, I felt that I had to." That's a perfect trait for JO.Anonymous Plantiff said:"Everybody else is participating with their heads bowed and their arms crossed," the midshipman said in an interview. "It became very obvious that you aren't participating."
The midshipman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared her military career might be affected, said she went along with the practice at first because she didn't want to stand out. But she stopped in her third year and stood at parade rest instead of bowing her head and crossing her arms.
As I am sure T. Jeremy Gunn really knows, rulings by a VA state court do not affect a Federal institution in MD.Lawyers said:And in 2003, a Virginia appeals court struck down the Virginia Military Institute's mealtime prayer as unconstitutional. The ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League have asked the Navy to stop the lunch prayer at the Naval Academy based on the VMI ruling.
The Navy is "ignoring the law," said T. Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. "The government shouldn't be deciding what kind of prayer is the right kind of prayer and then coercing people into accepting their preferred kind of prayer."
I think problems arise when individual chaplains bring their own religion into the group prayer scenario. I've never had a problem bowing my head (eyes open) in thought (not prayer) when the opening prayer or benediction is made at military events. Where I do mind is when the verbage is "Lord in heaven.... blah blah... in Jesus' name we pray...etc". I find this disrespectful to the group being asked to pray. Chaplains should have the SA to realize that a simple prayer such as "Let us bow our heads... blah blah blah... amen". No referral to a specific god or Jesus doesn't hurt people's own prayers in their own mind/heart. Referring to those specifics only alienates those with different beliefs. I think that in a military or govt setting, that is the most appropriate thing to do. But hey, it's my $.02