Let's say before a football game, the anouncer desides he's tired of this lip service moment of silence thing and decides to lead a full blown prayer to the Almighty for the players on the field. Does this in any sense of the word "force" Christianity onto anyone? If you were in a Muslim country and they prayed to Allah before a soccer game would you feel your spirituality was in some way being threatened? I think it's rediculous. You only have to look at this site to know that words to do not amount to force. Every atheist and muslim on this site would be guilty of trying to "force" me to accept their philosophies. I recognize that not everyone in the U.S. is Christian, but the overwhelming majority of us are. In fact, most of the immigrants coming into America are also Christian so the ratio isn't going to swing anywhere in the future.
"CONGRESS shall make no law"
14th ammendment should make this apply to state legislatures, not community football games.
2006-10-19 02:45:16 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The Catholic Church agrees with the U.S. Constitution as currently interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court and does not support "structured" prayer in public schools.
In the Vatican II document, DECLARATION ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, DIGNITATIS HUMANAE (Human Dignity), the Church states:
The human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.
Children will continue to privately pray before tests just like they always have.
With love in Christ.
2006-10-19 18:43:35 · answer #1 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it's always pretty simple to take a common-sense approach to questions like this, although it's also extremely easy for partisans on both sides to get carried away.
Prayer before a game? Fine. Whatever. It's freaking football for christ's sake. Who gives a damn. Right?
Actually though, if it's a public school football game, you're crossing a very plain line. Even the most non-partisan prayer you can come up with involves all sorts of religious assumptions, including, of course, the existence of a "supreme being" in the first place, to which many people do not subscribe. And, since public school is public and secular, I'm sorry, but you have to take it elsewhere. Even if everybody on the team and in the crowd is "christian." Don't like it? Send your kids to a "christian" school. They always have better drugs anyway.
You make that muslim country/prayer to Allah comparison, and you seem to think that you wouldn't be "threatened" by such a scenario, but I bet there are many who'd disagree with you. People tend to really hate being confronted with the rituals of a competing cult. Which is why we have these laws in this country!
And as far as the "words do not amount to force" thing, you're just wrong. Just plain wrong. Words are more powerful than anything else in your arsenal. And of COURSE people are free to say what they want on Yahoo Answers...lol...within the limitations imposed by the TOS (pause for laughter), because this is a discussion board. It's not a government institution in which we have to keep it strictly secular out of mutual respect for each other's personal opinions.
2006-10-19 02:56:27 · answer #2 · answered by jonjon418 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, you're wrong, it DOES force religion. Not everyone in a crowd at a football game, nor are all the players going to be Christian. Those who aren't are forced to listen to a prayer given on behalf of a religion they are not a part of and they have a right not to listen to it during times when they have no choice but to be there.
School prayer is not an "inconvenience". It's an all out breech of church and state. Period.
I note you quoted the first part of the First Amendment in terms of prohibiting religion, but you forget the second half quite conveniently. Typical. I've known far too many Christians who demand that their right to belive and preach be protected(which it already is, believe me, that protection ain't going anywhere), but Heaven forbid should that protection be extended to non-Christians and especially nonbelievers. Anytime the government rules in favor of someone other than a Christian, Christians immediately leap out of the woodwork to protest, to say their rights are being trampled on and that the government's trying to destroy religion.
All I have to say to that is; "Get over yourselves. You're not the only ones in this world. Deal with it."
The First Amendment states that the government cannot prohibit any individual from their right to believe as they want, no matter how much their neighbors protest and disagree. They have that right. And everyone gets this first part of the amendment.
The second part means that the government cannot pick ANY religion(this includes Christianity, no matter what you might think about America being a so-called "Christian nation") and establish it as the national or state religion. Hence, the establishment clause. That was put there to PROTECT individuals' rights to believe as they wish without the government telling them how to believe.
The first half guarantees that we all have the right to believe(or not believe), while the second protects it by keeping the government from picking a favored religion and doing away with any religion that isn't the pet religion of the month.
Believe me, if Christians who are so hot to promote a Christian America would think about how they'd feel if the shoe was on the other foot, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
I find it very odd that you mention being in a Muslim country and hearing people there pray to Allah before a game, if our spirituality would be threatened. Well, let me ask you your own question. If you were in another country as a Christian and forced to listen to a prayer in the name of the local religion, tell me honestly, you wouldn't feel threatened or disgusted with having to listen to a prayer that didn't go to Christ?
Words alone do not amount to force. If they did, well, this world of ours would be quite silent. But harassment is a breech of privacy and the right to free speech and thought, to not have to listen to people hounding you and telling you to believe "or else". Very fine line between words of discussion and harassment.
You claim to recognize that not everyone in America is Christian. I don't believe that. If you did, you wouldn't be so ruffled by the thought of not having prayer in school or before a football game. I'd also like to see just where you got the figures that say most of the immigrants coming here are Christian. The world is no more 100% Christian than America is, so I seriously doubt that even "most" are Christian.
Considering what's going on in the Middle East right now, I wouldn't be surprised if that "most" went to Islam.
2006-10-20 11:51:31 · answer #3 · answered by Ophelia 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
OK
Then I suppose you are ready to say One Nation Under Allah the day Muslims have a majority in congress. You have NO problems with this, correct!
YOu have no problems with people singing the National Athem in Spanish or Farcie (sorry about the spelling)
Let's get down to a really bigger problem
Why are there NO girls on the Football team?
Why is there 1/10th the money for Girls Sports in High School and College?
Why is there no girl on a Baseball (hard ball) team!
Why are there no Guy cheerleaders!
What is with this SEGREGATION in sports!
What, Girls aren't GOOD ENOUGH, TOUGH ENOUGH, STRONG ENOUGH.
What do you do when the ANNOUNCER SAYS, in the name of the Virgin Mary we Pray
That means it's a CATHOLIC PRAYER
Maybe the guys a Mulsim and he LEADS PEOPLE like this
And the Prophet said
And you end with Praise Be Upon Allah!
Ready to do that!
Huh
Ready to DO A PRAYER THAT DOESn'T MEET WITH YOUR NARROW, BIGOTED, SEGREGATED concept of Religion?
Open the DOOR AND YOU WILL GET THAT
YOU will get a Muslim or Hindu leading a praryer at a football game and BOY YOU BETTER NOT COMPLAIN!!!
Seventh Days Adventists Get together with Muslim and Jews and BANG NO MORE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, for taht is on the SABBATH DAY
YOU ready to be BANNED from the team because you ain't a CATHOLIC or a BAPTIST or a METHODIST
You ready for them to say, sorry you have to change your religion to be a Football Player, Cheer Leader, etc.
FACT the LARGEST dsyfunctional and disassociated religion in America is the Baptist faith. Imagine you CAn't play football unless you agree to Baptism by total imersion first, under the supervision of a Bapist minister.
FACT the LARGEST single religion is Catholic in the US
Imaging EVEYRONE on the FOOTBALL team having to make the sign of the cross and put on Holy Water before they go and play!
Catholics make up 20 - 25% of the US
Combined Bapists make upwards to 30%
(BUT here we're talking Southern White Baptists, Northern Baptists and Black Baptists, none of which agree on much except Adult Baptism is right and childhood Baptism is wrong).
Methodists 10-15%
Presbyterians 5 - 10%
Born AGain Christians 1%
Now, WHICH MINORITY is your religion!
REady to say the PRAYERS of the MAJORITY
If you REALLY want to say prayers, then why don't you attend Notre Dame or Regent University.
Both do it all the time, for everything. But those PRAYERS are to THEIR GOD in THEIR TRADITION!
2006-10-19 02:57:26 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why not just keep the moment of silence so everyone can pray to whom ever they wish? What if one of the kids on the football team is Muslim? Should he feel left out? This is not a Christian country! The moment of silence is a fair way to let people keep to their beliefs and not interfere with others. God doesn't care if you say it quietly to yourself or chant it along with others. It is the intention within your heart that matters.
Love & Light
Sharon
One Planet = One People
2006-10-19 02:50:31 · answer #5 · answered by Soul 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nobody is forcing you in this site. As I see it, this is a forum for debate. If the teachers force all students, including non Christians, into prayer, then that is a violation of freedom of belief. Being the majority does not give you the right to suppress the minority or force your belief into them. If that is your argument, then we are giving the Muslim a right to persecute or force Christians into their prayers in predominantly Muslim countries.
2006-10-19 03:03:26 · answer #6 · answered by dream reality 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its not forcing religion on anybody, but it does make the atheists, pagans, satanists, deists, etc, uncomfortable. And if you started making people uncomfortable, they will stop attending games, and the school loses money. Then the schools have to either cut extracurriculer activities or raise our taxes. Isn't it just better to keep things the way they are?
Also, schools are federally and state funded. Therefore, the Federal and state governments are the ones involved here.
2006-10-19 02:52:24 · answer #7 · answered by Byron A 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Since the DoEducation is run by congress, the law certainly applies. Isn't it better just to stay away from this whole slippery slope?
Besides, Biblically speaking, is it primarily the school's or the family's responsibility to educate a child in religion?
2006-10-19 02:49:50 · answer #8 · answered by dansweaza 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do not think it "forces" anything on anyone. What about prayer in schools, or what about the Pledge Of Allegiance? "One Nation Under God"... It is all about what you believe in. When I am somewhere that prayers are being said, I just pray! I don't take anyone's religion and hold it against them, and I hope they don't hold mine against me. "Judge not unless Ye should be judged".
2006-10-19 02:54:32 · answer #9 · answered by blondie 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any prohibition of prayer in public institutions is an extreme violation of the first amendment.
I Cr 13;8a
10-19-6
2006-10-19 02:49:03 · answer #10 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋