Posted on 03/13/2008 4:18:04 AM PDT by Man50D
A court hearing is coming in which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be asked to restore to Christians the rights that political correctness in the United States today grants other religions, including the right to pray to their God.
The case involves Rev. Hashmel Turner and the city of Fredericksburg, Va., and is being handled by the constitutional experts at The Rutherford Institute.
Turner, a member of the city council in Fredericksburg, was part of a rotation of council members who would take turns bringing a prayer at the council meetings, and he ended his prayers "in Jesus name."
That offended a listener, who promptly brought several heavyweight activist groups into the picture with their threat of a lawsuit if the elected Christian council member wasn't censored, so the city adopted a policy requiring "nondenominational" prayers, effectively eliminating any reference to "Jesus."
John Whitehead, the founder and chief of The Rutherford Institute, told WND it's an issue of freedom of speech and freedom of religion, burdened with the politically correct atmosphere in the United States that appears to endorse or at least allow any sort of religious acknowledgement, such as the University of Michigan building footbaths for Muslims, but allows no similar acknowledgement of Christianity.
He said the Fredericksburg case is one of the first to be battled through the courts, and is being watched closely by city councils and state legislatures across the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
The forgotten clause: “(N)Or prohibit the free exercise thereof.”
The reason Jesus is so offensive is because liberals fear the gospel of Jesus might be true.
There ya go.
btt
Actually, I do see a problem with the legal authorization of using the expression “In Jesus’ name”, in a *specifically* non-denominational setting, because it opens the door to other prayers by different religions as well. The law cannot permit just Christians to break the standard that prevents chaos and acrimony. Fortunately, the courts have told atheists that they have to tolerate prayer by others, even though they bitterly don’t want to.
For example, if you are a Christian, you would most likely, excepting liberal denominations, find a prayer in a *specifically* non-denominational setting offensive if it contained one of the following expressions:
“In the name of Allah, and his one true religion”
“In the name of the goddess, and her child Gaia”
“In the name of God and his twin brother Lucifer”
“In the name of Paramesvara Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti, Ganesha, Kartikkeya and Surya”
“In the name of Ahura Mazda”
“In the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Yarrr”
“Which accomplishes nothing, because there is no God”.
In other words, ending a prayer by referring to Jesus instead of “God” opens the flood gates.
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