Residents of Georgia retirement home told they can’t pray before meals, because the retirement home receives federal money

They have now, in principle, completed the revolution. It was done in three stages:

1. You turn the Constitution on its head by saying that the 14th amendment, which has power over the states, “incorporates” the Bill of Rights, which only has power over Congress. Thus the First Amendment’s provision that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” is effectively translated into, “a state shall not establish a religion,” changing the Constitution from a limitation on federal power over the states into a mandate for unlimited federal power over the states.

2. Then you redefine “establishment of religion” to mean, not a favored denomination which receives tax dollars and membership in which is required to hold political office, but ANY religious expression, period. With steps one and two in place, all religious expression under the auspices of state and local government is outlawed.

3. Finally, you progressively subsidize the entire society, so that everything in the society is funded by government, and therefore there is no area in the society where any religious expression is allowed. Remaining holdouts are eliminated as the grip of government funding and regulation keeps expanding.

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Laura Wood writes

Great line:

“It’s interpreted that we’re telling people that they can’t pray, but we aren’t saying that,” he said. “We’re asking them to pray to themselves. Have that moment of silence.”

LA replies:

The person who said that is absolutely correct. it’s wrong to say that we liberals are banning religion. We allow you to pray in your own home! We allow you to pray in your church! What more do you want? And when you’re somewhere other than your home or your church, we even allow you to pray in the absolute silence of your private thoughts! (Just don’t bow your head or adopt any prayer-type postures.) So of course we’re not banning religion. We’re simply preventing you from expressing your religion in such a way that other people would have be aware of its existence in any way at all. We’re simply preventing you from expressing your religion in public and thus violating the sacred wall between church and state.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 09, 2010 10:20 AM | Send