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From: GMarmet@AOL.COM
Date: Tue Sep 05 2000 - 18:20:32 CDT
The problem is not prayer, but who is doing the praying and what is prayed.
There is no prohibition against a football player praying, or several praying
together. What is prohibited (and rightly so) is communal prayer by the
entire stadium in a manner which would exclude a Jew, or a Buddhist, or a
Hindu, or anyone who does not pray in the same way as the public pray-er. It
is easy to understand if Jesus Christ is invoked to protect the players on
the field and one of the players (or someone in the stand) is a Jew. He or
she might feel excluded. Even nondenominational prayers may offend someone
who thinks a prayer to the Elephant headed God is more appropriate (the Hindu
God of school children) than a simple appeal to God.
In a world where we are all Baptists, Baptist prayers exclude no one. We do
not live in that world now, and may not ever have.
Yours in Scouting,
G. John Marmet, ASM
Troop 160, Glenview, Illinois
Northeast Illinois Council
Owl, C.19.96, Brotherhood
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