Upstate (S.C.) in crosshairs of prayer battle

The Upstate is in the crosshairs of a Constitutional controversy over prayer at government meetings, with battle lines being drawn by elected officials on one side and the American Civil Liberties Union on the other.

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, a Westminster Republican, introduced a bill before Congress to protect the rights of elected and appointed officials to pray as they see fit in public meetings.

.......

Barrett's bill would remove federal jurisdiction in these issues to state courts, letting states make their own decisions, and is "a baby step" that "would allow elected and appointed public officials to pray in public as they see fit" regardless of their religion or religious orientation, he said.

The recent ACLU challenge put the issue "on the front burner," but Barrett said he's thought about this much longer.

"The First Amendment gives us freedom of religion not from religion," Barrett said.



http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051118/NEWS01/511180323

If that is what we want.

I am so sick of them thinking that their meaningless little slogan is clever or logical.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

People in the US can always "pray in public as they see fit". It's easy. Just close your eyes and... pray!

But to force a public government meeting to pray to YOUR God by leading a prayer (Christian, Wiccan, I could give a s**t) is offensive and unconstitutional.

This guy doesn't have a clue and his bill doesn't have a prayer. :)

The Greenville/Spantanburg area has been targeted by the California religious wacko group Christian Exodus. Christian Exodus picked the SC upstate for one reason: it is the perfect laboratory for their experiments in theocracy.

Elected officials in the upstate, including U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, are among the few in the country who will probably seek George Bu$h's help in campaigning for the 2006 elections. The Bu$h/Fundy alliance is alive and well in BoJo-land.

Christianity in these parts is, more often, like Clemson or Carolina fan-ship: rabid, jingoistic, and mindless. If George Bu$h says that he is a Christian, then by God he is a Christian and a decent man, his other words and actions be damned (or, at least, ignored). Bu$h could put on a Carolina sweatshirt, do a couple of his famous cheers, and to these people he would be another die-hard Fighting Cock. The SC upstate is a sociological hall of mirrors where illusion trumps reality any day. How else could a region so severely impacted by both Bu$h's economic failures and his war against Iraq continue to support him, blindly and foolishly?

Ask John McCain about the SC upstate. He can tell you all you need to know.

by the residents of Greenville.
Most of their students actually came from the midwest and plains states. After they finished their "education", they would return back to Ohio or Indiana or wherever the fuck they came from. However, about 25 years ago, they started staying in Greenville. Subsequently, they started taking over the school boards, city and county council.
And it makes me furious. It's where I was a born and grew up. It is a beautiful area that is being ruined by these mendacious cocksuckers.

"Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:5-6).

Maybe he should try being a real Christian instead of a republican Christian.