(Untitled)

[petef]

Bush sucks. Is it so much to ask that religion and government are separate?

I think this person says it best:

"Americans are free to pray or not to pray, but it is not the business of our U.S. president to direct citizens to pray."

In related news, I just registered (online!) to vote in CA (I guess I should really get a CA license sometime,

Comments

[ninaf]

yay for voting! I voted today.

[codepoet]

George Washington disagrees.

Besides, the wording of the first amendment is that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." - Strictly speaking, the executive branch has no such limitation.

Finally, since he wasn't encouraging any specific type of prayer, I doubt this would violate a prohibition to "respect an establishment of religion" (such as the rise of the Anglican church).

[petef]

Law or not, I don't think it's appropriate. I've got nothing wrong with people who choose to pray (to whomever or whatever) - but not everyone chooses or agrees with this. I think every time I hear Bush speak, he says "God bless something..." - he's free to pray on his own, but it's not appropriate when making a statement that represents the united states.

There was no type of prayer specified, but the act of prayer implies something (belief in some higher power/deity/whatever) which may or may not reflect everyone's beliefs.

[codepoet]

If anyhting, Bush's Christian speaking seems toned down from Washington's speech - Do you think it was inappropriate for him to declare Thanksgiving in the terms that he used?

(Yes, I actually am curious.)

[petef]

I agree, but I don't think Washington's speech is at all appropriate for today (maybe it was for the time). Lots of things change in a couple hundred years.