Posted on 01/21/2009 10:57:50 PM PST by ReligiousLibertyTV
CHICAGO - Today, Judge Robert W. Gettleman of the federal U.S. District Court in Chicago ruled that a state law mandating a moment of silence in Illinois public schools is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. He had previously put the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act on hold while he considered the case filed by an atheist parent on behalf of his daughter.
The Illinois General Assembly had passed the law to allow students the choice to simply reflect on the day’s activities or pray, and proponents argued that this did not compel religious practice. However, the court found that the intent of the law was to encourage organized prayer in schools, and pointed to arguments made on the Assembly floor equating the moment of silence with legislative prayers. The court also found that the law favored religions that practice silent prayer over those who do not.
“Students remain free to pray on their own, in a non-disruptive manner, throughout the school day,” ACLU lawyer Adam Schwartz said in a statement. “As Judge Gettleman recognized in his decision, public school students in Illinois do not require the permission of the General Assembly to engage in this constitutionally protected activity. ”
The court upheld the principle that students have a constitutional right to pray on their own at any time and that the government or the schools should not arbitrate when and how students pray.
Now using this as an means to an end, and being a realist and not knowing the mind of God (lest I be a fool and claim to know the mind of God), I do believe that this "parent" is really going to be "hating death" it's obvious (to me) that he hates his life, to use his child in this manner.
Exactly!
OT...however whenever I see your nic, I’m reminded of the “torture” my husband endured.
NOTE: there was NO torture, even if you include waterboarding.
Just your everyday gal trying to keep things in perspective. ;o)
/OT
?, I am confused, (actually my normal state)
Being in Sudan it is 1100, and 0300 in the real world What the heck are you doing up at this hour! Yikes!
Well, I’m in PST, so it’s not that late.
You claim to be a SERE DOC, so I thought you would know what I meant by SERE.
Okie dokie.
Nitey note.
Nitey NOTE???
LOL!
Nitey NITE! ;o)
bttt
that is my claim to fame, and BTW there was no “torture” it was merely training if he went through SERE school, praying that it was not real life. Nor did I expect a lady to know of such things. So if you will forgive my confusion.
V/R
Doc
This is the real reason for this ruling. Muslim prayer is not silent. If the legislature voted to allow muslim prayers to be broadcast over the intercom at the appropriate times, the court would probably approve it.
My kids go to a public high school that is highly populated my muslim kids, and they let them out of class on Fridays to pray in the hallways if they want or to leave and go to their mosque. I guess that ACLU guy is right—kids can pray anytime during the school day they want to.
sorry...that should say ‘by’ muslim kids, not ‘my’ muslim kids...my kids aren’t muslim. :-)
I both think it’s silly that anyone has a problem with this and that they bothered to institute it in the first place.
The key is this:
socialist wish to remove God from public view. What has happened in Illinois is part of the plan. Why do socialist wish to remove God from public view? I am an American and I pray to my God for help. When God has been removed from public view, more and more people will begin to forget about God. When they no longer pray to God for help, they will start to pray to the guvment for help.
So, it is not about if kids can pray on their own or not. This can never be stopped. You can't tell if I am praying or just sitting and thinking. But you can stop a class room from praying and that is what they are doing. This is just another act that slowly erodes our individual strengths and slowly molds us into a collective people.
And may I add that if a moment of silence threatens atheist, then they are weak in their belief. Christians and other religions (except muzzy) have been compromising with atheist for years. I suppose that is because we are strong in our belief and we don't need a pray in school to make us feel strong. But for atheist to work so hard to remove pray in school and other forms of God in public view, they apparently feel threatened and are weak in their belief (or they are useful idiots for the socialist plan).
How? If this whole class put their heads together, minus the atheist's kid, and decide they want to carry on with this moment of silent prayer every morning who's going to stop them?
And like I said earlier that you can not stop people from praying on their own because people don't know if you are praying or thinking. Although, I do believe that if a atheist got wind of a group of kids having a moment of silence before class started, somebody would sue because the kids are now endorsing religion.
So, I am not disagreeing with you that the kids could put their heads together. My point was that they are stopping the teachers from leading a prayer in a class room. And a more important point that I wanted to make is this:
God is being removed from public view and for a reason. We have to keep God in public view or people will forget about God and look to the guvment for help. That is what the socialist wish for. This is what is most important.
My question too, is why is it not seen as restricting the free exercise thereof? A moment of silence does not endorse or establish a religion; and a moment of silence does not turn anybody into a religious person. Stopping prayer in school (lead by a public employee) is simply removing God from public view. This is part of the socialist agenda. Why do we have to continue to compromise God from public view. We have done enough compromising over the years. It is time for the atheist to compromise.
It appears to me that the guvment is now endorsing the religion of atheism. The guvment does this by removing pray from school (pray or moment of silence lead by a public employee, or pray that spoken in a group setting (example: see graduation ceremony). I think it is time to stop compromising and start fighting for our rights.
Constitutionally, we are correct. Only Congress has the power to establish a religion. Praying in school, manger scenes, and Ten Commandments on public property do not establish a religion. Telling me to remove the Ten Commandments or Menorah restricts my free exercise to celebrate my religion. Telling teachers that they can not lead a moment of silence restricts the free exercise thereof. And may I add that if your forefathers didn't want prayer on public property, they would never started to lead their session of Congress off with a prayer. They are not endorsing or establishing a religion when they do this. They are simply excising their Constitutional right.
Now, why can't the people do the same? I believe the problem is a group of people (called socialist) who have an agenda are trying to remove God from public view permanently. They want you to pray to the guvment for help from the time you are in the cradle to the time you are in the grave.
The students of the Colonial era studied the Bible as part of their cirriculum. Every early state constitution mentions God in their texts. What this tyrant judge ruled is unconstitutional. And yes...the man is a fool in black judicial robe that he is sooo underserving of.
Or the judge is working on a socialist agenda.
May I suggest the secular movie 'Bruce Almighty' with Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman. Maybe these slime judges could learn a thing or 2 about respect for God.
You didn’t have to explain any of this. I know what your problem is. You want the teacher to be able to lead prayer sessions during school.
Why does that matter? Why does the teacher have to be able to make the statement “class we’ll take a moment to pray or reflect”? They can do that without the teacher saying a word.
If I was the parents of these kids I’d send them to school with their Bibles and just dare the atheist to sue.
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