A federal judge in Texas has told the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs that it cannot censor a pastor's invocation at a Memorial Day ceremony.
The VA had ordered the Rev. Scott Rainey to remove a phrase using Jesus Christ from the prayer, arguing the line excluded other beliefs held by veterans, KHOU-TV in Houston reported.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes disagreed, writing the government cannot "gag citizens when it says it is in the interest of national security, and it cannot do it in some bureaucrat's notion of cultural homogeneity," according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
The debate centered over the close of the prayer, which read: "While respecting people of every faith today, it is in the name of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, that I pray. Amen."
Rainey has given the invocation for the ceremony at the Houston National Cemetery for two years. This year he was asked to submit the prayer in advance for review.
Cemetery director Arleen Ocasio e-mailed Rainey on May 19 and said that while the prayer was well-written, "the tone of all messages must be inclusive," the Chronicle reported.
Rainey, backed by attorneys from the Liberty Institute, which calls itself "a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting freedoms and strengthening families," asked the federal court for a restraining order. They argued the government cannot stifle private speech on public land.
According to the Chronicle, Ocasio didn't comment and issued a statement.
"Our national cemeteries are places for all veterans, of all beliefs. We cannot be exclusive at a ceremony meant to be inclusive for all our nation's veterans. Due to ongoing litigation, we cannot discuss this matter further," Ocasio wrote.
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@jim, the jews would strongly disagree with that.
@prophet, I hope your aware that the earth doesn't rotate around the sun in a perfect circular motion, in fact sometimes it is much farther away from the sun. Also the moon goes farther and farther away from earth each time it rotates, eventually it will lose it's orbit. As for atmosphere we really don't know if this is the only planet it looks more and more probable that we're indeed not. It is a fact that Mars used to have an atmosphere but it couldn't keep its magnetic poles because it didn't have enough mass. Next time learn how the universe works before you post something.
If one needs a valid reason to judge others, apparantly all they have to do is 'respect' them, while spitting in their eye.
Respecting, and then dismissing the validity of any view other than your own is not only hypocritical, it's illogical.
"I respect your right to be gay" and then shooting them in the head for being gay does not excuse the offense.
Too many of those veterans died for "Jesus". If preacher can't give a good speech without dismissing the beliefs (or lack of) of others, preacher should step out.
Christianity was invented to remove spiritual and occult knowledge (the powers of the mind) from the populace and place this power in the hands of a "chosen" few to the detriment of all humanity. The powers of the mind and soul are very real. People who are unaware of or who do not believe in these powers are easy to control and manipulate by those who are skilled in using these energies.
The Original Gods [Demons] were unjustly labeled as monsters and branded as "evil" to keep humanity from spiritual knowledge. Because of this, the human race has drastically degenerated both spiritually and intellectually.
Spiritual Satanism strongly advocates all learning, knowledge, inquiry, and free thought.
Spiritual Satanism supports the separation of church and state.Satanists do not push Satanism or prosyletize.
Spiritual Satanists acknowledge science and believe everything of the occult/supernatural to have a rational scientific explanation. We believe humanity has been held back dangerously in this area due to the hoax of Judeo/Christianity and its relentless attacks upon science for centuries.
http://www.exposingchristianity.com
http://www.joyofsatan.com
GOOGLE/YOUTUBE: BIBLE ZEITGEIST, AND THEN YOUTUBE:Banned From The Bible II – The History Channel, SEE REAL TRUTHFUL FACTS OK, ALL RELIGIONS ARE LLC/S-CORPORATION IMF IRS 501 (3)(c)
THGS is what happens when you get an Ayatollah in the White House! I bet if some Mullah or Iman wanted to use the term "Allah" there would not have been a problem wfor the VA or Ms. Ocasio, would there?
@Navyman, don't understand your point. There didn't seem to be a problem with this preacher either according to the judge.
I submit that all future invocations be performed by military leaders NOT preachers.
By the way, the question I posed earlier has still gone unanswered. Someone tried but they failed miserably anyone else care to take a crack at it.
so.....we can pray as long as our government gives their approval to the words we use.....why would a christian prayer any other way. I wonder if the ACLU defended this Minister's right to freedom of speech and belief???? NOT
Kirk, you're clueless. A Memorial Day event, put on by the VA, is not a private forum. It should not be used to promote any particular faith. Having prayers, as part of the program, opens the door to just this sort of conflict. The question then becomes, "How can government schedule prayers, as part of a Memorial Day event, without promoting a particular faith and therefore violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?" The answer was to allow non-sectarian prayers. The problem with that solution is that it limits the religious expression of the person giving the prayer, which may violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The government is in a pickle because it is trying to walk a fine line between the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. What put the government in this situation, to begin with, was making prayer a part of the program. It didn't have to do that. It did it to accommodate the expectations of religious folks.
I don't know if the pastor giving the prayer was trying to accommodate the government's needs (by adding a line about including everyone of all faiths) or just being stubborn about closing in the name of Jesus Christ, but expecting everyone to be included while making the prayer an exclusively Christian prayer doesn't really work. Jews and Muslims are excluded from this prayer, as participating in it would actually violate their own faiths.
Looks like Bill is the clueless one here. They asked a preacher to pray and then he got all religious on them and mentioned Jesus by name! Oh, the horror of it all! This shows you the bureaucratic mentality at work.
If you ask a preacher to pray, don't expect him to toe the party line and submit to your beliefs.
People appear to be using this site to post their own personal rants regarding religion. Nevertheless, I will attempt to bring this back to the topic at hand–prayer. An invocation is not a speech; it is a prayer. Prayer is the means by which a person who believes that a particular deity exists addresses that deity. There may or may not be people listening in on the prayer; however, they are neither sending nor receiving the prayer. They are, as it were, being permitted to eavesdrop on one end of a conversation that someone else is having. As such, the question whether they are pleased with the manner in which the believing person addresses his or her deity is irrelevant to the question of how the believing person feels the deity must be addressed. For us Christians, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Deity we know. More to the point, the name of Jesus Christ is the only standing we have before God the Father and the only claim we have to talk to Him at all. To ask us to pray without using the name of Jesus is to ask us not to pray. Even in the case of a public ceremony, anyone who is praying–silently or aloud–is exercising his or her religion and should be protected by the first amendment. Frankly, folks, if you're going to listen in on my conversation with God, you don't have the right to be offended by the way I talk to Him on your behalf. You're the beneficiaries, but you're not the boss.
What's really going on here, IMHO, is that the VA person in charge of the ceremony lacks understanding regarding the actual nature of prayer. All he or she wants is a ritual that fills a required spot in the ceremony.
Discuss.
navyman is right ,obama is behine all of this .
gp to fox news and get the real story ,this person in charge of the va there .is in big trouble.this is interesting. but cnn wont put this out.go to fox news
When is enough enough? Americans have bent over backward to these neysayers. No other country bends like we do. If you want to live in America, then you accept our traditions, if not, move. We will not stop you. Shame on anyone who cowers to these awful non patriotic idiots. Oh, maybe we are the idiots for listening to them. Stand up America and say E N O U G H!!!!!!!!!!!!
Moron, do you even know what a pope is? You are a sad case. Put a sock in it.