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Pelosi defends refusal to put "God" on flag certificates
Cleveland.com ^ | October 09, 2007 | Sabrina Eaton

Posted on 10/10/2007 3:04:21 PM PDT by Alex Murphy

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today defended the Architect of the Capitol's refusal to permit use of the word "God" on official certificates enclosed with flags flown over the U.S. Capitol.

Dayton-area GOP Rep. Michael Turner and more than 100 of his Republican colleagues sent a letter to Pelosi last week after an Eagle Scout in his district asked that a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol be sent to his grandfather with a certificate inscribed with the message: "In honor of my grandfather Marcel Larochelle, and his dedication and love of God, country, and family."

The boy and his father contacted Turner's office after noticing the word "God" was left off the certificate included with the flag. Outraged upon learning that the acting Architect of the Capitol, Stephen T. Ayers, won't allow religious expressions on flag certificates, Turner sent a protest letter to Pelosi.

"The Architect's policy prohibiting "God" from appearing on certificates for flags flown over the U.S. Capitol puts at risk our religious freedoms and heritage," said the letter, which also was signed by Ohio Republican Reps. Steve LaTourette of Bainbridge Township, Patrick Tiberi of Genoa, Jim Jordan of Urbana, Steve Chabot of Cincinnati and Jean Schmidt of Miami Township. "The Architect's policy is in direct conflict with his charge, as well as the scope of his office and brings into question his ability to preserve a building containing many national religious symbols."

Asked about the issue today at a press luncheon, Pelosi said the architect's policy was adopted because "people were asking for statements that not only were religious, beyond using the word God, but political as well." She said the official policy is to send a certificate that lists nothing beyond the date the flag flew over the Capitol and the name of its recipient. She said that members of Congress who request flags on behalf of constituents can "add whatever they wish" to the certificates, "whether it is a political statement or a religious statement."

"It's not about being anti-religion," Pelosi said, noting that each day in the Capitol starts with a prayer. "It is just about what the architect thought was appropriate for him to proclaim in a certificate."

Turner said Tuesday that he will continue seeking more signatures for his letter asking Pelosi to overturn the policy, and "if the speaker and the architect continue to implement their censorship program, we will drop legislation to compel the architect to return to granting inscriptions permitting the acknowledgement of God."

He said members of Congress vet the appropriateness of messages constituents request with the flags, and their discretion should be sufficient.

"We have the responsibility for these common sense issues that might arise with flag inscriptions and this one is basic," Turner said. "The architect has decided the word 'God' is offensive. This rule should not be allowed to stand."


TOPICS: Religion & Politics; Skeptics/Seekers
KEYWORDS: 110th; botox; god; ingodwetrust; liberal; onenationundergod; pelosi; socialist; uscapitol

1 posted on 10/10/2007 3:04:26 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: Alex Murphy

Hey, if they let “God” be on a certificate, then they’d also have to allow “Allah.”

I’m just sayin’...


2 posted on 10/10/2007 3:21:10 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: Yo-Yo

Nice straw man argument.


3 posted on 10/10/2007 4:32:50 PM PDT by Khepera (Do not remove by penalty of law!)
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To: Alex Murphy

Weak Nancy, really weak...


4 posted on 10/10/2007 4:57:59 PM PDT by Tallguy (Climate is what you plan for, weather is what you get.)
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To: Khepera
You think it's a straw man arugment?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1909395/posts

5 posted on 10/10/2007 5:37:43 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: Yo-Yo

We don’t HAVE to do any such thing. Just because there are people stupid enough to do something does not mean we HAVE to do something.


6 posted on 10/11/2007 3:12:25 AM PDT by Khepera (Do not remove by penalty of law!)
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To: Coleus; wagglebee; SandRat; xzins; StarCMC

ping


7 posted on 10/11/2007 5:02:32 AM PDT by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: Alex Murphy; Yo-Yo
"In honor of my grandfather Marcel Larochelle, and his dedication and love of God, country, and family."

The above inscription is obviously not coming from the Gov't but is at the request of the citizen making application for a flag.

It clearly says "my" grandfather and it says "his"...love of God.

I am sure that these certificates can be written so that they have an "Official" section with the government's statements, and they can have an unofficial section that says something like "dedication by" with a brief comment that CLEARLY lists the name of the citizen doing the dedicating.

That way it would need only be monitored for racist, violent, pornographic, and other "over the top" comments.

If the offical part says "US Gov't Flag flown over Capitol, blah, blah, blah, signed ________________. Then down in the corner is the citizen comment section, then I could care less if someone said in that section, "Dedicated by ___________ In honor of _______________, and his/her dedication and love of allah/sports/job/whatever."

8 posted on 10/11/2007 5:18:22 AM PDT by xzins (If conservatives will just agree to murdering their children, then Rudy might win the presidency!)
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To: Khepera
We don’t HAVE to do any such thing. Just because there are people stupid enough to do something does not mean we HAVE to do something.

Yes, we do. It's called the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and idiots like the ACLU live for cases like those.

9 posted on 10/11/2007 5:22:00 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: Calpernia
Ah yes! Pol-Pot Pelosi!


10 posted on 10/11/2007 3:55:11 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: SandRat

When you got someone like Nancy Pelosi as speaker you know you are in trouble as a country, Nancy is a complete anti American, She is Naive to the core she has low self esteem. America was founded on Christian roots Christianity was promoted from the begining of the founding of our nation, you are indeed to practice your own faith but it is fact that America was founded on Christianity and there is nothing unconstitutional in recognising this and has been for 200+ years of our great and blessed nation, there is no such a thing as seperation of church and state, The state is not to establish a set religion by demanding what practice you serve noe is it to prohibit the free excercise thereof which ACLU and company do all the time. time for us to put out home made flyers and get to work informing the public in some way or another because the media and our lousy choice for canidates arent going to cut it anymore they cant be relied on very much anymore to get the truth out or to stop playing the Polit.Correct games they so often do. If the good dont get moving then we can only blame ourselves!


11 posted on 10/11/2007 5:03:49 PM PDT by Wakeup Sleeper
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To: Wakeup Sleeper

you see that picture of Hilary and Bill at the top of the page are a sad one, Hilary was a Naive young lady who stumbled across a guy who was the type to bring the sexual outside of marriage most likely, and guys who do this are liars and naive Hilary got played all her life by this guy and now she is bitter and angry and the guy is still a con artist. So I have some sadness felt for Hilary but if she could only see that the very things she promotes now, are the very things that are encouraging the very antics and situations/behaivors that have made her bitter over the years. If she could only see it.


12 posted on 10/11/2007 5:16:29 PM PDT by Wakeup Sleeper
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To: SandRat

Thanks for posting that book. I’m buying it.


13 posted on 10/15/2007 4:58:43 AM PDT by samtheman
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