[so_real]

Hello Marlowe! Good to hear from you again. In your sentence you mixed "there are", "the Old Testament", and "should be given". You have a past/present/future tense issue that is the foundation for a good debate on the time of vengeance and the time of redemption in religious history.

But I do respect the opinion you have voiced. As always you are entirely reasonable and logical. I would not, however, condone equal access, or even being respectful of, non-Judeo Christian prayer in our places of justice and law-making. God does not consider any other god equal to Himself; He has warned us against prayer to other gods; and has voiced the penalty for being "lukewarm", better to be hot or cold. Furthermore, if ever there was a place where God's blessing was 'needed' it would in our places of justice and law-making.

You say: "Whether or not God hears that prayer or answers that prayer is God's business."

I say: "Prayer time is valuable time -- why waste it where it does us no good?"

[P-Marlowe]

I would not, however, condone equal access, or even being respectful of, non-Judeo Christian prayer in our places of justice and law-making.

If we do not grant Hindus and Bhuddist and Muslims prayers in our senate chambers, then neither should we allow Christian or Jewish prayers in that Chamber. Congress is prohibited from creating a state religion and if we only allow Christian prayers in the Senate Chamber, then Congress will have established a religion in clear violation of the first amendment.

Further the Constitution provides that there shall be no religious test for public office. Thus the religious liberty of all Americans must be protected and if access to the halls of congress is granted to Christians, it must also be granted to every other faith that is represented in Congress. As it stands right now, at least one state was stupid enough to send a Muslim to be their representative and thus, it would be a violation of the constitution to prohibit his religion from having a voice that is granted to other religions.

Religious liberty is a road with many forks. We must be free to take any one of them and we must not be afraid to let others choose their own paths.