| Subject: * * Judge Orders IN. Legislature to Cease and Desist Prayer * * |
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| Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2023 01:18:59 -0800 |
| To: "www.jail4judges.org" |
Notwithstanding that our Founding Fathers opened each and every day with God's blessing upon them, and without prayer, they did nothing, a judge has now ordered the legislature of Indiana to cease and desist.
Anyone can clearly see where the courts are taking this. The objective is to use the courts to render America totally devoid of all that is called God, to wit, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Ps. 9:17 First the legislators, and then everyone else, "And when they bring you...unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:" Lk. 12:11
Let us not forget that the soon-coming war will be against the "Greatest of all terrorists" described in Ps. 2:1-5, to wit, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision." And who is this "Greatest of all Terrorist?" It is the very One whom the courts are now ousting across this nation!
For those of you who have not heard the recent news, ABC News is reporting that Christ is currently on trial in a real court of law to prove He really existed, and Christ is the named defendant.
While the Constitution says nothing of "Separation of Church and State," the courts have nonetheless invented this "so-called doctrine" for a specific purpose. I dare say, even if the Constitution did so say, it would be incumbent upon every sole to ignore it, and to seek to the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, all laws to the contrary notwithstanding.
Ind. House Speaker
refuses to defy judge's prayer ruling
Jan 4, 2023
By Michael Foust
Baptist
Press
http://www.bpnews.net/contactus.asp
INDIANAPOLIS (BP)--Rejecting requests to
defy a judge's order banning the use of Christ's name in legislative
prayers, Indiana's speaker of the house said Jan. 4 that instead of
opening the 2006 session with a "government-approved" prayer, the
house of representatives would have no formal prayer at
all.
Addressing legislators on the first day of the new
session, Indiana Speaker of the House Brian Bosma said that while
the judge's ruling is being appealed, members would have "informal"
and "uncensored" prayers on the floor of the House before each
legislative day begins -- but not a formal prayer from the
podium.
Those prayers on the floor, he said, can invoke
Christ's name without defying the court order. In fact, before Bosma
even spoke, members prayed together at the back of the House.
Democrat Peggy Welch used "Holy Spirit" in her prayer, while
Republican Eric Turner invoked the name of Christ.
But the
189-year-old tradition of having a formal prayer at the beginning of
each session will take a hiatus -- at least for now, Bosma said. It
was the first time that the House had met since the Nov. 30
ruling.
"We will continue to fight this order by every
constitutional means available until it is overturned," Bosma said,
adding that the ruling is being appealed to the U.S. Seventh Circuit
Court of Appeals and would be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court if
necessary.
Although Bosma is Republican, the issue has
brought together members of both parties. When he was done speaking,
he received a standing ovation.
The controversy began Nov. 30
when U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton ruled that legislative
prayers could not invoke "Christ's name or title or any other
denominational appeal." The prayers, Hamilton said in his 60-page
decision, must be "non-sectarian." Hamilton was nominated by
President Clinton.
"All [ministers] are free to pray as they
wish in their own houses of worship or in other settings," Hamilton
wrote. "The individuals do not have a First Amendment right,
however, to use an official platform like the Speaker's podium at
the opening of a House session to express their own religious
faiths."
On Dec. 28 Hamilton refused to prevent the ruling
from going into effect. State attorneys had filed a brief with
Hamilton, asking him to reconsider.
The lawsuit was brought
against Bosma by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, the Indiana
affiliate of the ACLU.
Bosma said he decided the ruling must
be obeyed, even if he didn't like it. Some had called on Bosma to
disobey it.
"After talking about this with my own children,
I determined that the message this sent was completely
inappropriate," Bosma said. "We are a nation of laws -- even laws we
disagree with. What message would a defiance send to an abusive
husband who disagrees with the restraining order to stay away from
his estranged wife and children?"
In recent days, Bosma said,
his staff asked four Christian ministers who had previously prayed
to come and pray again. All four refused, saying they could not in
good conscience do so, Bosma said. He asserted that the ruling would
force him to inquire "about the individual's theology" and "their
beliefs regarding prayer" and force him to make a "theological
determination."
"Numerous Supreme Court decisions hold that
public officials like myself cannot make such religious judgments in
our public work," he said.
Christian ministers, Jewish rabbis
and Islamic imams all have opened the legislature in prayer, Bosma
said.
"Some mentioned Jesus Christ, some chose not to. Some
mentioned faiths other than Christianity, some did not. Others made
reference only to God and others chose not to mention Him in any
way.... The point is that we did not all agree, perhaps, on the
theology of those prayers. But we all agreed and respected the
individual's right to pray openly, freely without coercion or
without censorship," Bosma said.
Hamilton's ruling, he said,
was "intolerable and inconsistent with religious liberty and free
speech."
"[F]or the first time in two centuries, the speaker
of the house has been placed in the position of seeing to it that
only government-approved theology will be offered on the house
floor," Bosma said. "Requiring people to pray in accordance with a
government-approved theology directly interferes with the freedom of
conscience and speech that each of us holds so dearly.
"... I
pledge to continue to fight with each of you, and [I] know that I
speak for most of you, that by God's grace, we will not faint from
this task."
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