Posted on 09/23/2007 2:48:19 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Department of Justice has removed religious content from a memorial service for murder victims planned for next week after a watchdog group complained.
A religious hymn called "This Too Shall Pass" and a closing prayer by a Lutheran pastor will not be included in the ceremony as initially planned, department spokesman Kevin St. John said Friday.
The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation complained Tuesday that the hymn and the prayer at the state-sponsored event would violate the separation of church and state guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
After a review, St. John said the department agreed the content was on shaky constitutional footing.
"Rather than create the unintentional appearance that the state was endorsing religion or a particular creed, the department amended the program to exclude those parts," he said. "We certainly wouldn't want to have an appearance of a potential church-state violation overshadow the event."
He said the event, scheduled at the Capitol on Tuesday, would be the first of its kind in Wisconsin. Other events will take place around the country, including one in Washington, as part of the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims.
Pastor Charles Peterson, who had been scheduled to deliver the closing prayer, said he believed other ceremonies would include prayer. He said prayer can help mourners discover their spirituality.
"That's what people are looking for when they take part in a remembrance like this," he said. "I don't think they are looking for liberal politics."
As for the state's decision to cancel his prayer, he said: "That's fine with me. That's their loss, not mine."
The foundation, the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics, praised Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's office for quickly addressing its protest. The group said it complained on behalf of family members of murder victims and state employees who will take part in the event.
In the complaint, group co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said the lyrics to the religious hymn would offend some in the audience "by advancing the idea that the murder of their beloved child was part of a deity's plan!"
She cited the following passage: "He'll never give you more than you can bear/This too shall pass / So in this thought be comforted/It's in His hands."
"Grieving and vulnerable families should not be proselytized by state government or be told how or what they are expected to believe," Gaylor wrote. "The state should not be selecting which minister, which denomination or which religion should confer blessings, thereby excluding all the rest of us."
Gaylor also asked Van Hollen to scrap the religious overtones of an annual ceremony at the Capitol that commemorates law enforcement officials who died in the line of duty.
She said that event inappropriately included a chaplain, prayer and a rendition of "Amazing Grace."
St. John said state officials participate in the event but it is hosted by a nonprofit group. As a result, he said, "there's nothing about that ceremony which would run afoul of the First Amendment."
Grifters. Every last one of them.
“state-sponsored event”
Why is the state paying for a funeral?
I would be all over that watchdog group and the you know whats like flies to dung.
Again, a misinterpretation of the Constitution for the benefit of the godless.
It shouldn’t matter whether it’s state-sponsered or not.
They did already. The government isn't allowed to rule against religion.
These leftists will be in for a big surprise shortly after they croak.
It does because if it were not sponsored by the state, then no one would have a legal right to complain other than the non-state sponsor, and it would not be an issue.
ANYONE who can deny grieving families, prayer, is lower than scum.
The full text of the U.S. Constitution.
Guess if they tell a lie often enough...
I’m still trying to find the “Freedom From Religion” clause in the Constitution.
Am I just being a bit thick? I just can’t find it.
Freedom of Religion I found, but am still looking for the “Wall”.
Your thoughts?
What, really, is “separation of church and state”?
The phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution or any of the Amendments. The only reference that has to do with religion at all, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, is found as part of the First Amendment.
What would happen should ‘spontaneous’ Hymns, etc erupt, long, loud, energetic, ect? Arrests?
I thought that’s what I was saying.
The original colonies allowed for individual state religious identity. This is obviously a long stretchy.
Call their bluff.
Go ahead with the hymns and prayers. I would like to see the cops arrest these mourners.
A classic example of how these groups get their way, mere threats cause dish rag officials to run for cover. Wisconsin should be proud of its cowardly Attorney General. He has disgraced the state and is a pitiful example of worthless bureaucrats.
Meanwhile, hell awaits that woman.
an appearance of a potential church-state violation
Translation: Ban all religious acts in public so that the State isn’t seen as supporting religion
The more interesting question to me is that if you do not believe in God, what is the point of having a ceremony at all for the dead? The very decision to hold a ceremony is, in itself, acknowledgement of the devine.
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