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Old Thu Oct 13, 2005, 05:55pm
BoomerSooner BoomerSooner is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by ABoselli
That's the sticky part to this whole thing. It's not just prayer - it's Christian prayer. And if it is one religion prayer, that's recognition of a religion by the state (he is an agent of the state when he is a school employee) and that's unconstitutional. Even in Texas and New Jersey.
President Bush is always the President of the United States and as such is a "agent of the state", and he has frequently made reference to his religious beliefs, which by the way are Christian by his own words. Does that mean what he has done is unconstitutional?

The problem is that people somehow feel that if anybody in a position of authority believes anything, that they are being forced to believe the same thing. If in fact, they are being forced to believe something (i.e. they will be cut from the team if not Christians or your taxes will be increased if you aren't a Christian), then there would be some constitutional issues. Forced participation is also a constitutional issue, but simply having and expressing beliefs in any religion is not unconstitutional regardless of who you are or what title you hold. It is actually a right protected by the First Amendment, and being in a public office never eliminates a person's rights. It may increase his/her responsibilities, but never takes away rights.

All that aside, the coach maybe has hurt his team, but to any man or woman that would put his/her convictions before their career, before their team, before their family is a man of integrity and gets a tip of my hat. Tough situation to be in.
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