Oh My God! Or Yours? Back in 1998, the good old boys on the Green, NY city council began beginning their sessions with a prayer for JC & the boys to guide them in dividing the spoils. After 10 years of this blatantly unconstitutional hoo-hah, some people had had enough and asked the Supremes for their thoughts. The high court held that the council was using prayer for "permissible ceremonial purposes," not as an "unconstitutional establishment of religion." In other words, as long as they were just going through the motions and not actually praying, pretending to pray was okay. One expert claimed that, "It would have been a dramatic and controversial move — like freeing slaves or letting gays marry - to rule that legislative prayers are unconstitutional." The majority opinion argued that ceremonial prayer is an American tradition - like beating your wife, raping your neighbor's daughter and shooting black teens for wearing hoodies. They noted that praying before a meeting goes back to "the first session of the Continental Congress in 1774,". That it does promote the 'political division along religious lines' which 'was one of the principal evils against which the First Amendment was intended to protect' seems to have eluded the majority. Legislative prayers, even ones that are 'sectarian,' are permissible, sometimes. Okay, but I can check my email while you guys invoke the Fairy King, right?
The Parting Shot:
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