Kids Can't Pray in School? Give Me a break!

So Texas governor Rick Perry has a new ad out in which he makes these assertions:

“I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian, but you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know that there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.

“As President, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion, and I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage. Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again. I’m Rick Perry and I approve this message.”

My children attended Texas schools for almost four years, from 2003-2007, and I also attended Texas public schools in the 1970s, so I know something about Texas schools. Not much seemed to have changed from when I was a kid in public school and when my kids attended Texas public schools thirty years or so later. Someone still prayed in public, over the loud speaker, before the football game, and school events were often preceded with a prayer. I particularly remember one event for students and parents in which the speaker went into a long description of her personal conversion to Christianity and credited Jesus Christ for overcoming an illness. Her whole presentation was an example of proselytizing, if there ever was one, and it ended in "in Jesus' name, amen."

Not every school is as egregious in its flouting separation of church and state, but Rick Perry is lying when he says that children can't pray in schools. Children can pray anywhere. Does he really think that people's mouths have to move for God to hear their prayers? As Jesus himself said,

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6: 5&6)

So I guess Christians are the ones who should be in closets.

As for the comment about gays? Well, that's just prejudice and hatefulness. And there's nothing new about that, either.

I'm so tired of the lie that President Obama is waging a war on religion and that liberals are attacking "our religious heritage." Examples, please? 

Last year I attended a Christmas party--with Christmas tree and presents--at a U. S. GOVERNMENT facility, attended by U.S. government employees. Guess how the event began? With a public prayer from an employee who is also a Christian preacher. And, yeah, that prayer ended "in Jesus' name, amen."

So I'm standing there, thinking that this is no place for a sectarian prayer, but I'm also thinking that some of the people there with their heads bowed and eyes closed think the U. S. government is waging a war on--oh, not just any religion, but--the Christian religion.

Give me a break.

Update
Ta-Nehisi Coates has a few words to say about Rick Perry's ad: "Rick Perry and the Politics of Resentment," posted at The Atlantic, 8 Dec. 2011.

I'm Disappointed, Too

When accusations of using the race card in the campaign began to be lobbied against the Clintons, I was skeptical, but I listened closely to an exchange on PBS's Lehrer News Hour between Rep. John Lewis of Georgia (who led the 1965 voting rights march in Selma, Alabama) and Rev. Joseph Lowery (co-founder, with Dr. Martin Luther King, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) on this topic. Congressman Lewis has openly supported the Clinton campaign, and Rev. Lowery is a supporter of Barack Obama. As each man argued, I thought how this was a defining moment in some ways: two well-known and respected African-American men were openly discussing their differences of opinion, not bound by the politics of race which requires those of the same race to "present a united front." Each put the best spin on his candidate's actions. I came away thinking that the press was perhaps being too hard on the Clintons.

Recent statements of Bill Clinton's, however, have changed my mind. President Clinton has every right to strongly support his wife's campaign, but some of his recent comments have the whiff of the nasty personal attacks associated with the right-wing "noise machine." I was horrified and disgusted with the Republican tactics in many recent political campaigns: the Saxby Chambliss attacks on the patriotism of Max Cleland and the Swift-boating of John Kerry. The Clintons do not do Democrats any favors with Bill Clinton's recent comments comparing Barack Obama's win in South Carolina with Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign in the same state, dismissing Obama's victory as merely the result of the "black candidate" getting the "black vote."

Glenn Glenwald excellently describes the situation and the Clintons' missteps in his blog. I, like many Democratic women my age, want to see a strong woman president, and I think Hillary Clinton is our best hope and could make a good president. However, I believe Barack Obama is a good candidate, too, and my vote could easily go to Barack Obama if the Clintons don't change their campaign tactics. The Republican smearing is going to be bad enough after Democrats nominate a candidate; Democrats should not take a page out of the Republican smear-tactics game book to smear one another.

Other Comments:
From Barbara Ehrenreich's blog
James Fallows' blog