"Anyone can pray in school, at any time. No problem." Not true. Locally the
valedictorian of a couple of years ago was censured for bringing up God in
his speech. He earned the right to give his speech by having the best
grades in the class. If another person had brought up HIndu's Shiva or
Mohammed in his speech, would he have been censured? This is graduation.
The winner gets to make a speech. It is their work, not anything demanded
by the school or the government. What is your spin to this?

"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
It is not illegal if the majority of public school attendees want to
cite a prayer in school.

Anyone can pray in school, at any time. No problem.

According to the courts, (but what do they know?) it becomes illegal when
that
prayer becomes an official part of the school day.

Why do you fundies think its necessary to throw your religion in everybody
else's face? Would God refuse to listen to you if you gathered all the
kids
who felt they needed to pray, aloud, (and in the schoolhouse) in the
gymnasium,
or the auditorium, or the lunchroom 15 or 20 minutes before the beginning
of
the actual school day and prayed? Nothing stops your kids from doing so
now.
No, what you guys all seem to want is for the official school day to begin
with
not only the Flag Salute (which is appropriate in a public school) but the
Lord's Prayer as well.

If you think the majority of kids want to pray before the actual school
day
begins, fine. Give them a palce and an opportunity to do so. Even if only
one
kid wants to pray before school begins, give him or her an opportunity to
do
so. Just don't make a religious ceremony part of the official, taxpayer
funded,
school day.

And before you get all cranked on about the majority, ask yourself how
you'd
feel if you were a Protestant Christian in a neighborhood where the
"majority"
of residents were Catholic Christians. Would you be excited about somebody
handing your kid a rosary at the beginning of first period and then
instructing
the class to repeat, "Hail, Mary, full of grace......."? Sure, your kid
could
make a big nasty scene by refusing to go along.....but how many kids will
just
buckle under to peer pressure and pray as instructed?

Do you feel its the job of the school to teach religious values, or is
that the
responsibility of the family and the church.
Does the answer to that question change when the school is teaching *your*
specific religious values rather than some others?

If the local town wants to put up Christmas decorations and the
majority of the town is in agreement, then they should be allowed to
do so.

Once again, your opinion is different than the top legal minds in the US,
but
what do they know?

A town can put up snowmen, Santa Claus,
candy canes, and even decorated trees.
The government cannot establish or promote a religion, and at the point
where
the decorations begin broadcasting a religious message about angels,
virgins,
and etc the decorations are promoting an offshoot of Christianity.

Christmas isn't really Christian. It was never celebrated by Jesus, the
apostles, or the early church. Jesus never referred to a miraculous birth
in
any of his teachings. All other major incidents in the life of Jesus are
recorded in all four gospels, but two of the gospels don't even *mention*
an
incident where an enormous star appeared, hordes of angels hovered over a
herd
of sheep, three Arab soothsayers arrived on camels to give gold and other
precious treasures to a stranger's baby, born in a stable. You think maybe
all
four books would have mentioned something almost as dramatic in its own
right
as the crucifixion, had it occured?

(Many scholars agree that the stories of the Virgin birth, etc, were added
to
the Christian religious literature sometime in the second century. A
number of
Roman gods, and sometimes even the Roman Emporer himself would claim to be
born
of a virgin and the early church tweaked the tradition to keep up.
Potential
converts might otherwise ask, "Why should we adopt your religion? Heck,
your
guy wasn't even born of a virgin...")

To the degree that Christmas isn't Christian, I could go along with the
manger
display in city park. Unfortunately, Christmas becomes Christian when 99%
of
the Christians in town assume that it is.

You probably have some people in your town who think it's extremely
religious
to
dance naked around a pole on the First of May. Would you support the
expenditure of town funds to put up the pole? Would you say it's fine to
allow
this celebration to
use up all the space in the public park? How about naked people dancing
around
the pole for several weeks prior to May First, as it is the "season"?
Should
you send your kids to school naked on May First?

From a legal perspective, in a nation where
we have equal rights under the law, what makes the manger display and the
loudspeakers blaring "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in City Park any more
acceptable than a bunch of naked people pounding on drums and dancing
around a
pole or a fire?


If 80% of a graduating class of a typical suburban high school is
white, then it stands to reason that the top candidates for college
admission would follow this demographic. Should a portion of the
majority of this class be denied their earned place in the college
admission because of some slanted minority "quota"?

College admissions officers should not be allowed to inquire about the
race of
an applicant. When an application is received,
the data should be transferred into a file where the sudent is referred to
by a
number, so there could be no subconscious impulse to approve or disapprove
Tyrone Johnson, vs. Heather Goldstein, vs. Loc Nguyen Hoy or Miguel
Hernandez
based on assumptions one might make based on name alone.



The law offers "equal" protection, not "special" protection for those
in the minority.

Yes, yes! The minority cannot prevent the majority from doing something
it has
a legal right to do. By the same token, the majority cannot simply presume
a
right that is unconstitutional, and the majority cannot prevent the
minority
from exercising any and all legal rights.



They can choose to either play the game, watch from the sidelines,
start their own game, or go home. But they have no right to make the
game stop.

If the game is unconstitutional, it has no right to begin in the first
place
and should be stopped.

How about a lynching, Dave? There have been plenty of instances where the
"majority" of citizens in a town have supported lynchings. Should those
who
oppose lynching just


remove
themselves from the act, or they can choose to observe their own
prayer. But they CAN NOT deny those who wish to, the opportunity to do
so.