A divided Supreme Court
ruled Monday (May 5) that legislative bodies such as city councils can begin
their meetings with prayer, even if it plainly favors a specific religion. The
court ruled 5 to 4 that Christian prayers said before meetings of an Upstate
New York town council did not violate the constitutional prohibition against
government establishment of religion; the justices cited history and tradition.
The case involved the New York town of Greece, just outside Rochester, where
the council regularly opened its meetings with a prayer delivered by someone
from the community. The speakers were recruited from local houses of worship,
which were overwhelmingly Christian. By ,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-upholds-legislative-prayer-at-council-meetings/2014/05/05/dc142ede-cf9d-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html
The
lawsuit was filed by two residents who objected on constitutional grounds. We
see these cases all the time nationally and locally. Prayer proves power or at
least the desire to use power in some way.
Prayer has great power and should be stopped!
A
couple of things struck me about the reaction of people in this nation to
prayer in the public setting. Here two individuals (one Jewish and the other
atheist) were moved to the point to file suit against the city and see it
through the appeal process all the way to the highest court in the land. Those
actions seem to indicate a belief on their part that prayer has great power and
should be stopped. Seems odd to me especially for an atheist (one who believes
there is no god) to be so concerned about an action directed at and to nothing!
From that perspective what difference does it make? Evidently it makes a
difference, so their actions say.
Prayer what difference does it make?
This is perhaps more troubling than the first. What concerns
me is the attitude of those who DO believe in the power of prayer. We take it
for granted. We act like it is of little importance. We complain that the government
took prayer out of schools. No, we did. We stopped praying or never got around
to it or were too busy. We failed to teach our children to pray before a test.
Because we don’t. We ranted and raved instead of calling on God who is the
POWER to change our hearts and the hearts of others. Our actions indicate a
perspective that believes prayer make little to no difference!
Prayer, it changes everything!
It
is not the act of praying that changes anything but God who changes everything.
In prayer we communicate in a deeply personal, intimate level. Aligning our
minds and hearts to THE heart that loves us so. Prayer tunes us into the ways
of the Kingdom of God which are so vastly different from the ways of this world
in which we are immersed. A believer is being fitted and shaped into a heavenly
citizen. Prayer provides the opportunity to recalibrate our minds to the
heavenly completion. Prayer provokes us to participate with the power of God to
redeem this world. Prayer makes all the difference and has to be practiced to release
the power.
Have
you been practicing? It’s a good time to start regardless of *SCOTUS.
In HIS Service and Yours,
Bro G*Supreme Court of the United States
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