Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Educating Barry, Shemp, and MDixon

[MDixon6569]

In a message dated 9/13/06 2:54:08 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Or congressional members can be led in prayer but > students can't. > Schools are deemed unusual: the kids have to be there and they are kids. You are rationalizing. Congressmen have to be there also. And Kids don't have to participate if they don't want to. The reasoning you are giving here was that children may "feel uncomfortable" or "excluded" if they don't participate with the whole class. A "touchy feely"  argument, not a constitutional argument. As long as a law is not passed saying that children must pray or must say a specific prayer , no law is broken. As far as I know there never has  been a law created by the congress demanding such because it would be against the 1st amendment, but also prohibiting people from willfully praying together is just as illegal because it also violates that same amendment. By the way there is no separation of Church and State clause in the constitution. The closest thing to that is the first phrase of the first amendment which says the Congress shall make no *laws* respecting the establishment of religion, but as equally important is the next phrase which says,  or prohibit the *free* exercise thereof. Which means the government can not establish a state religion nor can it keep the people of the same from practicing  any religion. The next phrase is also important in that it says, or abridging the freedom of speech. So if a government body, such as the courts, are prohibiting the free, lets add voluntary, exercise of religion , even if it is on federal property, they are censoring free speech. This had always been the understanding of the 1st amendment until 1949. I'll try to locate the court case that started evoking this separation clause  that isn't there. __._,_.___ To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe __,_._,___