Guest Column: Diversity the answer to prayer problem

By WILLIAM L. HATHAWAY

Published 07/20/08

Praying in public is risky business. As a pastor who holds two competing values at the same time - namely, a commitment to prayer and a high regard for the separation of church and state - I have worked for decades to negotiate this prayer-public maze.

Currently, leaders at the Naval Academy face opposition to their tradition of mealtime prayer and the state Senate is often criticized for its handling of its opening prayer.

The United States, by law, is not a Christian nation. We are a nation of religious freedom. The state's job is to maintain a setting for the free exercise of religion, not the endorsement of any...

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Utterly ridiculous letter - 2008-07-21 04:46:06

You state "To many, the lowest-common-denominator approach appears acceptable. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. It is insulting for any religious leader to be invited to pray, and then be told how to pray." Let me tell you, when I went through basic training I was darn well insulted that my meal time was being wasted by being required to wait while some idiot prayed. It seemed like the instructors were timing our meals with a stopwatch. If you were the last one in, you were lucky to finish your meal before being barked back out the door. Insulting, indeed! Let the mids (& basic recruits) pray on their own time. If they have to be constantly reminded, then their faith is too lame to be worth wasting other peoples' time.

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L. Skelton - Linthicum, MD - Karma: Bad