Supreme Court approves public prayer! This is good news. Right???

I've only read the headline so far, don't know too many details. But yes, I saw it as a GREAT thing!

I'm with you. Only saw headlines. Think it isn't everywhere all the time, but any prayer is good no matter where or when, IMHO!

To play devil's advocate here, would you be comfortable having a Jewish Rabbi say the prayer? A Muslim Immam? A secular general prayer with no reference to God at all? The USA was never meant to be a Christian nation, but that's what it's turning into. A GOP representative came out and said that the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment only protects Christians. I'm not anti-Christian but if these kinds of things continue, we will be living in a theocracy where only Christians have any protection.

I'd have no problem with a Rabbi or Immam saying the prayer, as long as the purpose of the prayer was blessing the meeting and the people in attendance. Why not? I'd like to see a different person say the prayer each meeting, however, so no one felt their God was being slighted.

I take it you other women live where this isn't a common occurrence anyway? Because where I live, all sorts of public events are started with a prayer. They're not diverse in any way, unless you consider letting a Methodist instead of a Baptist to be some level of inclusiveness (around here, that would be a yes).

These prayers are all of a pleasant sort, asking God to bless various groups. They're not necessarily brief; this is entirely dependent on the speaker, and the invocations can go on from the asking for guidance for the meeting to the weather to the general town to sports to current events.

I do not come from a prayer tradition where this kind of random speech was the norm, so it's always a bit disconcerting to me. But, when in Rome, and all that.

I will say this: the overall effect is mixed, to my mind. There's no doubt where I live that if you want to be considered as a decent person you need to be a Protestant Christian. There are plenty of folks here who consider Catholics to be cult members and not a few who think that Jews have horns (I'm not making this up. A guy in my office who is Jewish was actually asked that). I was raised Catholic and *I* feel kind of like an outsider, but people are not shy about offering their religious opinions anyway.

Regardless of the Constitution prohibiting religious tests for office, someone who does not fit the comfort mold here regarding religion has no chance of being elected to that council where they are praying, or to pretty much any other office around here.

On a related note, yesterday's letter to our local paper just blistered them for not including enough front-page coverage about Easter. She noted that they spoke about 'some other religion' --her words -- threatened the paper, reminded everyone that this is a Christian nation, noted that people were in danger of going to hell, and --- and -- apparently had no idea that she wasn't much of an ambassador for Christianity. This is life here. The recent Supreme Court ruling will change nothing here.

I forgot what state you live in, Ellemm. I grew up mostly in Wisconsin, though due to my father's work, we also lived in Georgia, Michigan and New Jersey.

I raised my kids in the Midwest, and while my daughter always attended public schools, my son went to a private non-denominational (though it started life as an Episcopal-supported) K-12 school. Many of the kids attending that wonderful school were NOT Protestant. (It's easier to say that than to try to list all the religions represented by those students.)

Growing up in Madison -- perhaps because it was the home of a major/Big 10 university -- my parents often invited people home for dinner who were not US citizens. All of them were wonderful people -- all of them wanted the same things for themselves and their children.

Early on, I learned that God does not favor any one group of followers over another. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn this in my youth.

So I'm sorry to learn from you, that at least some of the US is still parochial -- and I use that word for its "small minded, intolerant" meaning, and not in terms of meaning "of or related to a church parish -- in its thinking.

I thought we Boomers were all about trying to change that point of view.

I also think that a lot of people are louder and more unpleasant now: religious, nonreligious, left, right, etc. I think our political and social discourse is just a lot nastier than it used to be. You know, I can remember that when I was much younger, the members of Congress who were more moderate were considered the grownups and the take-no-prisoners types were shuffled out of sight. Now, it's the opposite.

From my own perspective, I think that coming from an immigrant family and being raised Catholic left me a good bit more sensitive to the 'outs.' There's no way I can manufacture a family history that would have gotten me accepted by the Founding Fathers, and I'm fine with that. The US is a big and great country.

But there are a lot of folks who feel aggrieved for one reason or another. (I have read that a town council member in Roanoke has already moved to make the public prayers Christian only, saying that tolerance doesn't have to extend to non-Christians. Now, he may well be voted down, but there will be more like him. I guess each town will have to find its own way.

Christian only prayers in a town council meeting is really, really sad, Ellemm.

Don't the NASCAR races have prayers before each race? That's cool. I don't care what religion anybody is. God is God. I do believe it's good to believe in God. And believing in Heaven brings hope that otherwise isn't there. I don't know about you,
but I couldn't get through a day without believing in God. I'd be sunk. This world is rough. Con-artists' sway those in authority. People are shooting people for little or no reason.
I thank God for adoptive parents' that made sure I went to church. And I've got to pray just to keep one foot in front of the other. Prayers and blessing to all....