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From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.politics
Subject: Re: School Prayer -- My personal opinions
Message-ID: <1389@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Mar-84 12:38:29 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.1389
Posted: Tue Mar 13 12:38:29 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Mar-84 19:21:51 EST
References: <237@unmvax.UUCP> <1403@mit-eddie.UUCP> <1342@ut-sally.UUCP> <972@ihuxr.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
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Well, Don, I really don't think you need to get out your asbestos plating,
but here goes:

>> >> I am a second-generation atheist.  My fiancee was raised as a Hindu.
>> >> Can any supporter of a school prayer amendment explain to me how the
>> >> prayer resulting from the proposed amendment could possibly avoid
>> >> offending  o u r  religious sensibilities or those of our children?  If
>> >> you agree that we would find the prayers objectionable, then can you
>> >> explain to me why our right to freedom from religious interference by
>> >> the state is somehow not worthy of defending simply because we do not
>> >> conform to the religious beliefs of the majority?
>> >> 				Prentiss Riddle	   ut-sally!riddle
>> 
>> Is it possible that your religious belief, a belief in "non-God", and your
>> expectation that the state promote your religion, might be insensitive to
>> my religion, and in fact discriminatory against it?  I haven't really
>> thought about this, but the idea struck me and I couldn't argue myself out
>> of asking.........
>>  			Don Stanwyck	 ihnp4!ihuxr!stanwyck

So where did I say that I expect the state to promote my religious beliefs? 
For the state to refrain from practices which assert the existence of God does
not mean that the state is engaging in practices which assert the opposite. 
I would consider organized atheistic observances just as inappropriate for
the classroom as the organized Christian ones now so hotly promoted by the
supporters of the School Prayer Amendment.

(And, by the way, I don't believe for a moment that the principal supporters
of such an amendment would be willing to settle for non-sectarian prayers.
What they would really like to see is for their own brand of fundamentalist
christianity to become the state religion, and they will push things just as
far in that direction as they possibly can.  Why else do they refuse to settle
for silent prayer, something which would offend only people on the margins
like me?  Instead they are working for an amendment which is guaranteed, in
practice if not in theory, to create religious strife in every school district
in America.  It won't be just the children of atheists and Hindus who will be
put on the spot: it will be the children of Jews, of Catholics, and of
mainstream Protestants whose views happen not to conform with those of the
hardest-hitting Bible-pounders in their communities.)

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle