Tag Archives: Prayer

Canadian Supreme Court rules against prayer at city council meetings

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The atheist who made the complaint against prayer was awarded “$33,200 in compensatory damages, punitive damages and costs”. Leaving aside the devil and his minions, being damaged by prayer must surely be a unique experience. What trauma could this hyper-sensitive disbeliever possibly have experienced to be worth $33k in compensation? Did he burst into flames like a vampire in sunlight? If only atheists could be dispatched that easily.

The Supreme Court ruled that “the state neither favour nor hinder any particular belief” and, by reciting a prayer, it favoured Christianity – a right and proper thing for a civilisation founded upon Judeo-Christian morality to do; right and proper for a civilisation that is not bent on its own annihilation, that is. By the time we have finished driving God out of Christendom we will have nothing left but a howling wilderness, as Peter Hitchens puts it. Let’s hope no atheists are offended by that.

From here:

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled the municipal council in the Quebec town of Saguenay cannot open its meetings with a prayer.

In a unanimous decision today, the country’s top court said reciting a Catholic prayer at council meetings infringes on freedom of conscience and religion.

The ruling puts an end to an eight-year legal battle that began with a complaint filed by atheist Alain Simoneau and a secular-rights organization against Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay.

The court ordered the City of Saguenay and the mayor to stop the prayers. It also ordered the city and Tremblay to pay Simoneau a total of $33,200 in compensatory damages, punitive damages and costs.

A different way of turning the other cheek

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From here:

An order of friars, fed up at having Bibles stolen from their church, have put up a very unholy warning urging thieves to be struck down from high with – diarrhoea.

The Franciscan Friars have turned the other cheek at a series of brazen thefts of the holy book from pews within their 594-year-old church.

But now they have had enough, and there have been a few raised eyebrows at the tone – and nature – of the bizarre warning that has been posted at the entrance.

In both English and Italian, it reads: ‘We pray to the Lord that these thieves are struck down by a strong case of diarrhoea and that this will be a stimulus for them not to steal.’

If it’s good enough for friars, it’s good enough for me. Bishop Michael Bird won’t know what hit him next time he tries to steal a church building; I have the notice ready to pin on the door.

Veterans not allowed to say 'God' and 'Jesus' in prayers

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The Soviet Union tried to stamp out Christianity; it failed, but government agencies in the USA are having another go.

From here:

Veterans in Houston say the Department of Veterans Affairs is consistently censoring their prayers by banning them from saying the words “God” and “Jesus” during funeral services at Houston National Cemetery.

Three organizations — the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion and the National Memorial Ladies — allege that the cemetery’s director and other government officials have created “religious hostility” at the cemetery and are violating the First Amendment. According to court documents filed this week in federal court, the cemetery’s director, Arleen Ocasio, has banned saying “God” at funerals and requires prayers be submitted in advance for government approval, MyFoxHouston.com reports.

[….]

“We were told we could no longer say ‘God bless you’ and ‘God bless your family,'” Marilyn Koepp, a volunteer with the National Memorial Ladies, told the website. “How did I feel? I probably shouldn’t say how I felt because it was absolutely appalling that this woman would come aboard and tell us we cannot say ‘God bless you.'”

 

Seniors told they can't pray before meals

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From here:

Preston Blackwelder proudly showed off a painting of his grandmother that had hung next to the front door of his Port Wentworth home.

She was the woman who led him to God, Blackwelder said Friday.

And with that firm religious footing, Blackwelder said it would be preposterous to stop praying before meals at Port Wentworth’s Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah because of a federal guideline.

“She would say pray anyway,” Blackwelder said of his grandmother. “She’d say don’t listen.”

But Senior Citizens Inc. officials said Friday the meals they are contracted by the city to provide to Ed Young visitors are mostly covered with federal money, which ushers in the burden of separating church and state.

On Thursday, the usual open prayer before meals at the center was traded in for a moment of silence.

I trust the instinct of the seniors will be that of Daniel on hearing that King Darius – the ancient equivalent of Western governments, it appears – had forbidden prayer to all but himself:

When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Dan 6:10

Update: it appears that the ridiculous anti-prayer policy has been changed.