The Gaytheist Agenda

The evil ACLU is oppressing poor Christians again. This time they’ve swooped in to keep the name of Jesus from being spoken in public forum prayers.

“It’s very troubling for the government to dictate what kind of prayers Christians can or cannot offer in the public forum,” says Dr. Gary Cass. “Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father in His name. To require Christians to not pray in the name of Jesus Christ is asking them to pray contrary to their faith. By what authority does the Government deny Christians their First Amendment right to pray according to the dictates of their conscience?”

Reverend Hashmel Turner, a member of the Fredericksburg, Virginia city council, was threatened with lawsuits by from many secular anti-Christian groups, including the ACLU, for his Christian prayers during a council meeting. Turner was apart of a rotation of all the council members who would take turns praying at the council meetings. His case is currently making it’s way to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 19, and would allow Christians the right to pray “in Jesus’ name” in the public forum. This case will have a tremendous impact on city councils and state legislatures throughout the United States.

Yes, Jesus taught the disciples to pray in his name (I’ll play along here). But he also said:

Matthew 6:6-7 (New International Version)

6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Accordingly, public prayers are against the teachings of Jesus and it shouldn’t be an affront to anybody for them to be banned from the meetings.

“Just because somebody objects to praying in Jesus’ name does not mean that should Christians must deny their faith to accommodate another person’s opposing beliefs.

Herein lies the problem. People like Dr. Cass cannot understand that not imposing their faith on others is not the same as denying it. He is being asked to do the former, not the latter.

“Over 80% of American’s self-identify as Christians, but Hindu’s, Muslim’s and Jew’s have all prayed in the public forum and no one has restricted the content of their prayers and the ACLU has not threatened them.

Maybe nobody has asked the ACLU to step in, assuming the prayers offered up by Hindus, Muslims and/or Jews have in any way violated the ruling that prayers must be non-sectarian. If somebody wants the ACLU to help them they must first ask. The ACLU is not, as claimed, an anti-Christian organization and it does not take delight in searching for ways to restrict the rights of Christians. It works to ensure the civil rights of everybody, of every faith, or no faith. The problem is that those who wish to impose their faith on everyone are to blind to see that.

“The majority of Christians are subjected to non-Christian prayers, why are Christians told what they can or cannot pray? This is simply anti-Christian bigotry and an attempt to deny free speech for Christians,” said Cass.

Christians can pray anything they want, anywhere they want, as often as they want–silently. They just can’t impose their prayers on others whenever and wherever they want, particularly on the taxpayers dime. And that’s what just kills people like Dr. Cass.