Perry’s ad reveals misunderstanding of prayer in school
People are up in arms over the new Rick Perry ad in which our Texas governor and presidential hopeful picks a religious fight. He blasts Obama and liberals for allowing gays to serve openly in the military while forbidding kids to pray in school or celebrate Christmas. Huh?
Jim Wallis is calling for an apology, and several other Christian leaders are expressing their disapproval.
Perry’s argument is weak, to be sure. But it’s not surprising he’s taking this approach. The belief that Christianity is under attack by liberal secularists is a pretty common one among conservative Christians. I heard it again and again when I was a religion reporter.”The liberals took God out of school,” they would say. But nobody can stop students from praying or believing. The courts ruled that mandatory prayer and Bible readings and displays of the 10 Commandments were unconstitutional. That’s hardly a war on religion, Governor.
I must be getting soft. (-:
This is the second posting in a row that I agree with you.
And me a “fundamental” Christian at that.
Although a confirmed agnostic when I was in school, the
morning prayer over the P.A. was neither a problem nor
a concern to us non-christians.
It was and is interesting that in concession to the Jewish
community, even 60 years ago, none of the prayers ever
mentioned “Jesus name.”
For the first 140 years, Judeo-Christian morality and ethics
were the standard of authority used by the U.S. Supreme
Court. There departure became an avalanche during the
Warren Court. With departure from absolutes, welcome
post-modernism’s relativity, what is moral and ethical
became what is legal and the deconstruction of Western
Civilization began in earnest.
We are well on our way to an oligarchy for as John Adams
warned, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government
of any other.”
Even Sir Julian Huxley, Darwin’s bulldog, agreed that the
world would be a better place to live if everyone behaved
as if there was a god.
Interesting, Jack. Thanks (as always) for reading and responding.