Before getting into the weeds about public prayer, here’s a hilarious clip put together byu the President’s enemies over at CNN. You will have to get on the wensite and scroll down to the photo of President Trump them click on the white arrow in the blue circle. It’s hilarious! HERE. What about the American idea first articulated by Thomas Jefferson about the separation of Church and State? Is that now dead? Is public prayer by public officials even legal in the United States?
How are we to know what motivated Melania Trump, the First Lady, to pray in public at a quasi-government event? Melania was born 4/27.1970 She is 46 years old. She became an American citizen in 2006, ten years ago.
Back to Melania’s recitation of the Lords Prayer. the Supreme Court ruled that opening local government meetings with sectarian prayers doesn’t violate the Establishment Clause as long as no religion is advanced or disparaged, and residents aren’t coerced. It took them seven years to figure that out and it was a five to four decision.
The Supreme Court cracked down on prayer in schools in the 1960s, ruling against Bible readings, the Lord’s Prayer or an official state prayer. In Lemon v. Kurtzman, a 1971 case involving religion in legislation, the high court devised what became known as the “Lemon test.” Government action, it said, should have a secular purpose, cannot advance or inhibit religion and must avoid too much government entanglement with religion.
Then the court gave a green light to legislative prayer that does not advance or disparage any faith saying: “The inclusion of a brief, ceremonial prayer as part of a larger exercise in civic recognition suggests that its purpose and effect are to acknowledge religious leaders and the institutions they represent, rather than to exclude or coerce non-believers,” he said..
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