God is welcome in the capital of Puerto Rico

El Vocero de Puerto Rico (Spanish-language article) ^ | January 13, 2005 | Liz Arelis Cruz Maisonave

[Ebenezer]

(Translated excerpt)

"I am going to get God involved in the municipality's affairs, whether this island's politicians like it or not. We are going to open spaces for prayer and reflection for whoever wants to pray either the Old or New Testament, or to God, Jehovah, or whoever," San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini warned.

With this statement, he issued a warning to judges that he will encourage prayer during work hours and in municipal spaces, in addition to including in his work agenda for the next four years the strengthening of the Office of Religious Affairs to offer services to the communities through faith-based organizations.

"I believe that the great mistake we human beings in the government have made is that, under the excuse of separation of church and state, we don't want to know about God," he added.

[Ebenezer]

A Republican, Santini was re-elected to a second four-year term as Mayor of San Juan in November of last year on the ticket of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party.

[mlc9852]

Wait until the ACLU hears about this!

[weenie]

We are going to open spaces for prayer and reflection for whoever wants to pray either the Old or New Testament, or to God, Jehovah, or whoever...

"...and what about me?

...Allah likes prayer also..."

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Wait until the ACLU hears about this!"

---

I'm sure the ACLU doesn't like Mayor Santini very much as it is. He was the only mayor of a large U.S. city to petition Congress to let the Assault Weapons Ban expire, for which he received ridiculous amounts of criticism from the media, as well as prodding the anti-gun Brady Group to campaign against him in the general election.

But for some reason, I don't believe that the ACLU has ever sued a city in Puerto Rico for the official Christmas displays, which usually include overtly religious themes. I guess the ACLU is afraid that in Puerto Rico they will probably lose, since neither federal nor state judges in Puerto Rico are likely to buy into the ACLU's "freedom from religion" doctrine.

[broadsword]

Allah likes prayer also.

Yes, but he prefers the bloodthirsty sacrifice of Christians and Jews... well, everyone, but them first and everyone else afterward.

[Ebenezer]

The truth of the matter is that, relatively speaking, Puerto Ricans are a religious people, most of them Catholics. Any attempt by the ACLU or their ilk to eliminate public displays of religion in the island would be taken as a sacrilege. Municipal governments do place Nativity displays in public parks during Christmas, a practice which is taken for granted as part of the observance of the holiday. In addition, what is the ACLU going do about the Puerto Rican government's strong support for the traditional Epiphany festivities on the island, huh? As the Schwartz character would tell Flick in the film "A Christmas Story": "I *triple* dog dare ya!"

The last time I checked, Puerto Rico enjoyed complete religious freedom, and no pogroms against non-Christian faiths have been reported.

[cll]

This morning I saw mainland tourists posing for pictures in front of the state Capitol's huge nativity scene. As if it were a novelty.

On the ACLU, its fruitcake head claims PR ancestry. If that's true he will not touch us for he must know that real fire and brimstone will befall him!

[USF]

Kewl!! I hope they build pyramids so I can perform human sacrifices for Huitzilopochtli too.