Finding Religions (NC) Cross, Bibles, Hymnals retored to Legislative Chapel

North Carolina Senate Republican Caucus ^ | 2/4/2005 | Rob Christensen

[Prospero]

February 4, 2005:

FINDING RELIGION: Senate Rules Committee chair Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, ordered Christian Bibles and hymnals and a cross removed from the Legislative Building's nondenominational chapel, but was reversed by Senate leader Marc Basnight when the decision became public, The News & Observer reports.

Rand, who is also the Senate majority leader, said the items' Christian emphasis is inappropriate in a public building used by people of different faiths. The small, mostly unadorned chapel off the rotunda between the House and Senate chambers is open to legislators, staff and visitors who wish to use it for prayer or reflection.

In recent years, a group of lawmakers began holding weekly Christian worship in the room and left the privately donated texts and symbols there. Rand said the worshippers are welcome to hold their services in the chapel, but they should bring their own religious material and take it with them when they leave.

"It's not a church," Rand said. "It's a public place for whoever wants to communicate with one's maker." Rand said he acted after receiving complaints from legislators he declined to identify. The General Assembly includes Christian, Jewish and Muslim members, Rand noted.

At least two members who attend the noontime Wednesday devotionals, Sens. Neal Hunt, R-Wake, and Robert Pittenger, R-Mecklenburg, criticized Rand's action after learning of it. "It's a sad testament to the secularization of our country and the denial of the living God," Pittenger said.

Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., said a court probably would uphold the use of a chapel in a public building for religious services, but said it is not a good idea to keep Christian symbols on permanent display there.

He said a reasonable accommodation would be to keep the items in a drawer or cabinet in or near the chapel when not in use. Basnight has requested that the items be stored on a shelf. ( Rob Christensen, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 02/04/05).

[Prospero]

Senator Robert Carpenter, narrowly defeated for re-election last year, maintained a weekly Chapel service in the Legislative Building Chapel, featuring notables like Anne Lotz and Franklin Graham, for decades. The tradition was picked up by newly-elected Senator Neal Hunt of Wake County, this week.

[Prospero]

The link to the source was garbled. Should be HERE.

[anniegetyourgun]

Good for him. Apparently, others from other faiths are welcome to use it and donate various articles. I wonder why they don't bother. I take that back.....I don't wonder at all.

[cantfindagoodscreenname]

The title needs some editing...I had no clue what the article was about until I read it.

[yoe]

"It's a sad testament to the secularization of our country and the denial of the living God," Pittenger said.

The Politically Correct nuance for genocide of Christians...ongoing around the world.

[StonyBurk]

my people are destroyed for lack of understanding.
There are those in America who would utterly remove the
foundation to the political house erected by Franklin and his peers. IT Franklin,that old Deist,never far from the truth, who proposed the Convention had remained divided by
petty self interest because they had neglected God. Franklin insisted they would suceed no better at the political building than the Builders of Babel unless they
secured God's concurring aid. Yet today there are godless
infidels and atheists who would insist we have a godless
COnstitution and a godless State.

[TaxRelief]

Leading the movement for unity among religions is Charles Haynes, former director of the First Liberty Institute and "senior scholar for religious freedom" at the Freedom Forum. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Character Education Partnership (see Character Training For Global Citizenship) and edited the acclaimed book, Finding Common Ground: A First Amendment Guide to Religion and Public Education. His popular inter-faith program has joined such unlikely partners as:

• The National Council of Churches and the National Association of Evangelicals

• The liberal National Education Association (NEA) and the Christian Educators Association

• The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD, curriculum arm of the NEA) and the National Association of Evangelicals

• People for the American Way (PAW) and the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs

• The National School Boards Association and the Christian Legal Society

• The Anti-Defamation League and the Christian Coalition [i,  ii,  iii]

These strange alliances alone should raise questions about Charles Haynes' First Amendment Guide. So should his membership on The Pluralism Project's Advisory Board, which includes Wiccan author Margot Adler and Professor Diana Eck, an authority on Hinduism who chairs Harvard's Committee on the Study of Religion. 

This info is blatantly stolen from a website that I can no longer find. Sorry.

[Prospero]

I appreciate it, whatever the source... Interesting. And I did garble the headlines. Some of us have been sitting on this story because we knew even Basnight would hit the roof when he discovered what Rand had done. (Rand didn't even ask the permission of the House, to whom the Chapel belongs as well as the Senate. Here's the original story, which I'm getting ready to post. http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/v-text_newsletter/story/2088605p-8467064c.html What typical tripe from the arrogant Tony Rand.