Florida school officials in prayer case could get jail time

[FayeforCure]

I dont think religion was being promoted... nor was anyone forced to pray.  The percieved slight.. was er... slight.  The thirty seconds of prayer could be ignored.  The suit is silly.

I guess you would expect people in the example of Michigan to ignore their Muslim principal's possible call to face Mecca for prayer? That thirty seconds should also be allowed under your argument?

[DavidWilliams]

We are not primarily a Muslim country. At least last time I checked. I wouldn't expect to go to the middle east and thrust my version of Christianity upon everyone.

[sheclown]

Geez.  If I ended up doing six months in jail for praying?   I would consider myself blessed for not being a coward!  The courage of these school officials to follow their beliefs is inspiring whether or not you agree with their belief.  Most people would cave.

In God I Trust.

[DavidWilliams]

We are not primarily a Muslim country. At least last time I checked. I wouldn't expect to go to the middle east and thrust my version of Christianity upon everyone.

really?

so just here then.

Culture is culture be it here or a distant land. And, no not thrusting it here either. But, thanks for asking.

[NotNow]

Criminal prosecution in this case is out of line.  Civil penalties would accomplish the governments wishes.  This is an area where political correctness has gotten out of hand.  Legislation is required to restore common sense.

[DavidWilliams]

Criminal prosecution in this case is out of line.  Civil penalties would accomplish the governments wishes.  This is an area where political correctness has gotten out of hand.  Legislation is required to restore common sense.

Absolutely agree.

[NotNow]

Violating a judges order can be criminal or civil.  Failure to appear refers to failure of a criminal defendant to appear before the court.  In cases such as this, it is more common to call the parties back into court, and use financial penalties to obtain compliance.  Of course, jail is not unheard of, but I don't think it serves the purpose in this case and only inflames the subject.

[Ocklawaha]

But the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawsuit led to the consent decree, maintains students have a right to be free from administrators who foist their personal religious beliefs on them.

However, an ACLU representative said the organization "never suggested" people should go to jail for violating the decree, and the organization is not involved in the criminal proceedings.

The ACLU filed suit last year against the school district in northwest Florida on behalf of two Pace students who alleged that "officials regularly promoted religion and led prayers at school events," according to an ACLU statement.

Both parties approved the consent decree put in place January 9 under which district and school officials are "permanently prohibited from promoting, advancing, endorsing, participating in or causing prayers during or in conjunction with school events," the ACLU said.

So FAYE? Does this mean if your elected we can sleep tight knowing for certain you won't endorse a Justice that is pro-prayer? pro-Christian? or pro-life?

What needs to happen in this case is a good old fashioned protest. Pace is a big High School, and quite modern. Kind of funny because we almost bought a house there and we toured this very school. Pace is to Pensacola what Flemming Island is to Jacksonville. A few pro common sense activists circulate a PRAYER FOR PACE HS! notice and have all 1,200 kids and 3,000 parents, teachers and other staff show up with PRAYER FOR PACE HS! Tee shirts, banners, signs, and get on a bull horn and lead everyone in prayer. I'd make it a point to have my local AME Choir singing, have the local orthodox and reformed Rabi's, the Moslem cleric, The Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, a Hindu and Buddhist Priest, A Wiccan, Catholic fathers and Bishops, Orthodox too, Russian and Greek, I'd even get Tirari, the civilized headhunter to "Pray the Boa". I'd call NBC, CBS, ABC, FOC, CNN, and have every lawyer the ACLU has, along with every darn cop in Santa Rosa County. Go ahead, bust us, bust all 4,200 of us and find a place to stick us... Cause tomorrow, I'd be right back on school grounds.

Now you may not consider this a "Christian" attitude, but then neither was Ezekiel's when he mocked the prophets of Baal. It sure got his point across.

Freedom of religion, no matter what size, type, flavor, place, color or LOCATION is in our founding documents. But since "Scopes" and then "Bitch Murray" we have been trying to remove all trace of a higher being from the influence of our children. In direct correlation with the removal of the Bible and Prayer from school, the level of crimes, murders, robbery's, violence, arson, gang membership, has risen concurrently.

Trust me Friend Heights! These folks won't be finished until it becomes illegal to speak His Name in public. Just how far from the bottom of the human sewer have we sunk? Well, there is a story from the battle of Midway that sort of illustrates our new found righteousness. One of the officers was a devout Christian, and as such he took a lot of joking from his shipmates. But always happy, smiling, he was a hard worker and everyone wanted him on their team. As the battle raged around him, many of the men were praying, horribly injured men were begging him to come and pray over them. The captain allowed it, and he became an unofficial chaplain until his ship slipped beneath the waves... You see he was in the JAPANESE NAVY, not ours. God knows the day is coming soon when he could be arrested on one of our ships for saying "Jesus."

If comments from folks like BT, Heights, and Myself, make you angry, and you want to give us a smart reply tell me what other word in the English language I could use that would get you equally angry? I'd suggest you may have to have some SOUL REPAIR done.

OCKLAWAHA

[Lunican]

Violating a judges order can be criminal or civil.  Failure to appear refers to failure of a criminal defendant to appear before the court.  In cases such as this, it is more common to call the parties back into court, and use financial penalties to obtain compliance.  Of course, jail is not unheard of, but I don't think it serves the purpose in this case and only inflames the subject.

It sounds like they are following this process. The article simply stated what the maximum penalty is. We don't know what the judge decided yet.

[NotNow]

Yes, the incarceration is just a possible penalty.  Hopefully, the Judge in the case has some sense.  I still think that we are going to have to rethink the subject.  Freedom of religion doesn't mean erasing eveery visage of God.  Just another penalty of surrendering our common sense to lawyers and congress.

[jaxnative]

The fact is, most of the people in this country instinctively and factually realize the current clown show over public professions of faith is due to an insidious bastardization of a constitutional principle.  This principle has been distorted in so many ways as to be unrecognizable from the original intent and has allowed a tiny majority to force their intolerance on the public.  I can think of no better situation for civil disobedience and I hope it continues and escalates.

[NotNow]

Well said, jaxnative.

[jandar]

School is a place of learning.
Public schools are just that, public.

You want your kids to have religion in schools, send them to private schools. You have a right to have religion in your kids lives. I have the right to have my kid learn what I want him to, including any religion.

My tax money will not be spent on preaching any religion.

[BridgeTroll]

No one was preaching... one guy said a prayer blessing the new building.

[Lunican]

Yeah, AFTER a court order advising him not to.