Praying for sanity in Indiana

January 13, 2007

Guest Post by Morbo

Like a lot of state legislatures, Indiana’s House of Representatives opens its sessions with a prayer by a guest religious leader. The problem is, the prayers were almost always Christian and included references to Jesus Christ. This annoyed some people, who got the American Civil Liberties Union to sue.

The ACLU won the case, and now the Indiana House is under federal court order to use more generic prayers. This bothers some lawmakers.

“I don’t really like having a pre-approved prayer because it doesn’t allow us the freedom of speech we deserve,” said Rep. Mike Ripley, a Republican from Monroe. “Some people believe to have your prayers answered you have to invoke Jesus Christ, and that can’t be done now.”

Actually, it can. Pray at home. Pray in your car on the way to work. Pray at your desk at the capitol building. Pray wherever you like. Just don’t expect the government to pray for you or do it out loud so everyone has to take part.

Where did people get this idea that prayers don’t count unless they are shouted out in public by some minister acting in a quasi-official capacity? In fact, those types of prayers are the ones that don’t count — at least according to Jesus. (See Matthew 6:5-6.)

So, Rep. Ripley, all I can say is, “Knock yourself out.” Pray silently, and make it really meaningful — not just a by-rote exercise to get through before you start deliberating the new highway bill. If you are sincere, and there is a god, my guess is he will hear you.

I’m praying silently at my laptop. That all Red State legislators read this post.

  • “Some people believe to have your prayers answered you have to invoke Jesus Christ, and that can’t be done now.”

    Oh, waaah! Some people believe that to have your prayers answered you must slaughter an animal. SFW?

    Excellent post Morbo. I often supsect the loudest Christians have special Bibles that skip straight from the OT to the Book of Revelation. How else do you explain bizarre un-Christian crap like a National Day of Prayer? And that whole mote/plank thing also seems to have sailed over a lot of righteous heads.

    Needless to say, these cretins wouldn’t recognize the Constitution if you shoved it up their…noses.

  • Boy, if you don’t like that, then you really don’t want to hang around any military functions. Just about every ceremony has an invocation, and they range from very non-denominational to personal pleas to Jesus.

    I dunno, it’s not like I agree with it, but sometimes you just stand silently and respect that it does have meaning for others. And heck, if I want others to accept and respect me, then it probably means that I have to accept and respect some of their whims.

  • ***Needless to say, these cretins wouldn’t recognize the Constitution if you shoved it up their…noses. ***
    —————————————————The Answer is Orange

    But TAiO, you miss the greater issue—-they’d ALL recognize the Nazarene Carpenter, and they’d ALL be fighting—to see who gets to nail him to the cross this time….

  • “…and they’d ALL be fighting—to see who gets to nail him to the cross this time….”

    Heh. I think it was C.S. Lewis who wrote that if Jesus were to return in modern times he’d be committed to an insane asylum, with the tacit or direct approval of people who considered themselves good Christians.

    Of course, if he came back as a guy from the Middle East, Gitmo or a black prison is a more likely destination. I mean, if a brown guy tore up a mega-church that could only be terrorism, right?

  • As an a-theistic thinker I’m appalled by the attention our government officials pay to religion. “In God we trust” on our money, “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance, oaths sworn on Bibles, locker room prayers, tax-free status for religious businesses, “God bless” from our polliticians.

    I guess this is another of those instances (homophobia, racism, sexism being others) where the more-or-less fortunate dominant types have absolutely no understanding of life as viewed from the non-dominant position. I often think this country should change its motto to “My Way or the Highway”. It’s certainly the motto of the Deciderator and all those who “elected” him.

  • I often think this country should change its motto to “My Way or the Highway”.

    How about “Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out”?

    Not only does it include a reference to a deity that shows said deity’s followers can’t keep track of their own beliefs, but would nicely capture BushBrat’s approach to just about everyone.

    Just a suggestion.

    [Ducks and runs]

  • Being from the reddest part of the first red state called for George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential (s)election, Bedford, Indiana, I have a couple of insights to share.

    This whole thing came about because a couple of years ago, some fundamentalist minister decided to use the short invocation before the legislative session (which nobody found offensive, really), to begin actively proselytizing (sp?), to the point of leading hymns. This, for good reason, offended a few powerful non-Christian legislators along with those who champion the Constitution with its separation of church and state (aka Democrats).

    On the plus side, besides pointing out to the fundies that they spoiled their own nest on this one, this year Indiana was the first state to herald the Democratic takeover of Congress when Ellsworth defeated crackpot Hoestetler and neo-facist Republican (Count) Chocola took the silver stake from his Democratic challenger.

  • i always say a prayer when i am sitting on the crapper – ‘ please don’t let this turd i am about to lay be too gd big and rip me a new one. thank you.’

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