In Indiana, a food pantry run by Christians has been denied federal funding because the Christians offered to pray for their customers – they offered prayer, they didn’t thrust it upon anyone.
The solution is obvious: wait for atheists to set up a food pantry that will be completely devoid of prayer. Any atheist volunteers? Anyone? No? I thought not.
From here:
An Indiana congressman is looking into possible “misinterpretation” of federal guidelines after a local food pantry was cut off from federal aid for asking clients to pray, FoxNews.com has learned.
Todd Young, a Republican congressman serving Indiana’s 9th District, has contacted state officials regarding Community Provisions of Jackson County, a food pantry in Seymour whose director, Paul Brock, insists he will not stop asking clients if they want to pray with him or one of its 45 volunteers when they receive food.
“It certainly appears there is a misinterpretation of some rules,” Young’s spokesman, Trevor Foughty, told FoxNews.com. “We want to make sure that no one is being denied the public assistance that they need.”
Brock told FoxNews.com that he never requires anyone to pray in order to receive nourishment they need.
“We ask them if they want to pray with us; if they say no, then we just let them go on through,” Brock said. “We’re not a church. My job is to feed them and if I can pat them on the back and pray for them and lift them up somehow, that’s what I’m going to do.”
I’m reminded of an apartheid-era joke.
Constable Van der Merwe walks into a church in a “white area” and sees a black man kneeling at a pew.
“What are you doing there?”he asks.
“Polishing the floor,’baas'” is the reply.
“That’s all right, then. Just don’t let me catch you praying.”