Faithless

"I do solemnly swear that I will support
the Constitution of the United States
and the Constitution of this Commonwealth,
and be faithful and true to
the Commonwealth of Kentucky
so long as I continue to be a citizen thereof..."

This is the first part of an oath of office required of the Governor of Kentucky, and yesterday, Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams went a long way toward flaunting it. As President of the Senate and a Constitutional officer himself, one assumes Williams took this same oath. As an attorney, and officer of the court, Williams is honor-bound to uphold the law. But down in the polls, his campaign manager recently departed, and seemingly desperate to try anything, the Bully from Burkesville has apparently stooped to a new low - blaming the department of education (and Governor Steve Beshear, of course) for keeping the faith, following the law, and upholding every citizen's right to be free to worship as they please by not allowing the majority to establish a religion to which all must be beholden.

Perhaps Williams has forgotten that Kentucky was first settled by Virginia Baptists, among others, who were seeking religious freedom in Kentucky because the established Anglican church in Virginia jailed their ministers for preaching without a license. And, of course, the Baptists could not get a license, because they were not Anglican. To be free from that religion, whole congregations of Baptists moved to Kentucky where they earned a reputation for religious tolerance.

This from the Herald-Leader:

Williams blames Beshear

for end of Bell Co. prayer at games

A state lawyer's recommendation that the Bell County school district stop allowing prayer over the public-address system at football games has sparked controversy in Kentucky's gubernatorial election.

Republican David Williams, who is challenging Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear in the Nov. 8 election, urged Beshear in a news release Friday "to denounce this attack on prayer at public functions and lead the efforts of state government to defend our citizens' right to voluntarily pray anywhere they choose."

Williams' campaign on Friday released an email from the state Department of Education to the Bell County school district that said praying before a football game is unconstitutional and the district should "cease this activity immediately."

The email, which cited several court decisions regarding prayer and schools, was written by assistant general counsel Amy Peabody on Aug. 16.

"Even beyond the fact that I believe that the alleged activity actually does constitute unconstitutional endorsement of religion, the effort and expenditure of funds required to defend this practice in litigation will greatly outweigh, and not serve the students of the school district, any perceived constitutional purpose in this activity," Peabody wrote.

Williams responded with typical bluster. But that is not to infer that he doesn't mean it.

"It is a travesty that Gov. Beshear will not stand up for freedom of religion in Kentucky, and instead sides with an organization called 'Freedom From Religion Foundation,' " Williams said. "As governor, I will stand up against out-of-state liberal organizations who want to stomp on our freedom to voluntarily pray in public places."

Federal judge prohibits school vote on graduation prayers in Texas

AUSTIN — A federal judge has prohibited the Round Rock school district from allowing students to vote on whether to have prayers at graduation.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks is included in an agreement reached Thursday by the school district and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The Washington-based group sued the school district in August on behalf of six parents and a former student.

The suit was prompted when a majority of seniors at McNeil, Round Rock and Stony Point high schools decided to have prayers at their graduations. Most students who cast ballots at Westwood High School voted against an invocation at their commencement.

In its petition, Americans United said prayers at a school-sponsored event violated "the boundary between church and state that is necessary in a pluralistic society."

Sparks' judgment forbids the school district from holding any election or vote by students to have a prayer, benediction, invocation "or other religious communication" in any graduation unless the U.S. Supreme Court rules in future cases that such votes can be held.

Sparks dismissed the suit against the school district.

Round Rock Superintendent Jesus Chavez said Friday he was pleased to have the matter settled and that school trustees already had decided before the case was heard to eliminate student votes on holding invocations at commencements.

This from the Austin American-Statesman.

The case for school prayer

Teachers and management at a northern KwaZulu-Natal school are holding prayer meetings for pupils whom they believe have been possessed by evil spirits.

Thembinkosi Mngomezulu, principal of Manhlenga High School, said he believed that his pupils were bewitched, because they cried continuously in class. He said this was the first time something like this had happened at the school.

This follows the recent murders of two women whom the pupils apparently believed had bewitched them.

"Lately, the pupils have just been crying and we believe they were bewitched. We believe there are evil spirits at this school," the principal said.

Mngomezulu said prayer meetings were being held for the pupils.

"The prayers are for those who are possessed and those who have not yet been possessed," he said.

The Education Department had joined in the prayer service on Wednesday, he said....

This fromSouth Africa's Independent News & Media

In San Diego, Prayer OK at lunch, not classes

A San Diego school that drew international attention for setting aside time for Muslim students to pray in the classroom will no longer do so.

Instead, Carver Elementary's schedule will be reconfigured so students can say their required midday prayers during lunch. Courts have long upheld students' rights to pray on their own during lunch or recess.

Another controversial element of Carver's educational program geared toward Muslim students – single-gender classes – will be eliminated.

Superintendent Carl Cohn stressed in a July 18 memo that single-gender education is legal under federal law, but at Carver it “has become a serious distraction from learning rather than a vehicle to promote learning.”

Carver added the single-gender classes and a daily 15-minute, in-class break for voluntary prayers last September after it absorbed a failed Arabic language charter school that served primarily Somali Muslims.

Since a substitute teacher publicly complained about Carver's practices in April, the San Diego Unified School District has been inundated by letters and phone calls from as far away as Europe and the United Arab Emirates.

Some alleged that the school was violating the separation of church and state by giving Muslims time to pray. The district maintained that it is legally required to approve students' request for religious accommodation.

David Blair-Loy, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties, said his organization will monitor how the district carries out the changes related to accommodating prayer.

The ACLU is one of several groups that have been scrutinizing Carver.

“We believe it's much more appropriate to allow students to exercise their rights to voluntary prayer during the existing lunch and recess period, rather than carving out a new and additional recess for that purpose,” Blair-Loy said yesterday...

This from the San Diego Union Tribune.

Federal judge rules against public prayer in Georgia

Cobb County ordered to pay $1 to residents who sued;

no injunction issued

ATLANTA - A federal judge has ruled that officials in a suburban county violated the Constitution in the way they selected clergy to offer prayers before certain public meetings, but refused to issue an injunction since the practice has been made more ecumenical.

Instead, U.S. District Judge Richard Story, in a decision dated Friday, ordered Cobb County, near Atlanta, to pay $1 to seven residents who sued in 2005 over the prayer practice.

“Because the court finds that plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate an immediate threat of injury and failed to demonstrate that an injunction will redress their injuries, plaintiffs do not have standing to seek a permanent injunction,” Story wrote...

...They weren’t against the right to pray, but rather the sectarian content of some of the prayers — 70 percent of the prayers were Christian in nature — and the manner in which guests were selected to lead the prayers — clergy were picked in part by thumbing through the Yellow Pages.

Story said in his order that there was nothing wrong with the way the Board of Commissioners selected clergy becuase it culled names from a diverse set of religious organizations compiled from various sources...

This from MSNBC.

Two GOP candidates for governor in slugfest over school prayer

In the contest for conservative voters, Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his chief opponent in the GOP primary election are in a bitter argument over who is the biggest supporter of prayer in public schools.

Fletcher had aired a television ad last week that said Republican challenger Anne Northup, a former congresswoman from Louisville, had voted against school prayer.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Northup said in recorded telephone calls to Republicans across the state. "I have voted time after time in support of prayer in our schools, and as governor I look forward to protecting this right. As a matter of fact, I have consistently argued that taking God out of our schools has undermined our children's faith."

Northup, who served in Congress for 10 years before losing the seat to a Democrat last year, voted against a 1998 resolution that called for a constitutional amendment that would have allowed voluntary school prayer.

At a campaign stop in Liberty on Monday, Northup said she voted against the resolution because it would have allowed teachers to lead the prayers, which meant adults of one religion could have been in a position to lead children of another religion in prayer.

"Christian families do not want teacher-led prayer in their classrooms," Northup said.

This from the Courier-Journal.