Photography with the Left Eye

A District court found that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. The decision was in April, and the court allowed the observance, which was last week, to go ahead.

Undoubtedly, there will be an appeal. It (and any higher appeals) should fail. Let’s analyze the likely arguments a bit.

The proponents of a national prayer day will say that a day does not violate the Establishment Clause because it does not favor any religion. Not so. By its nature, a National Day of Prayer favors those religions that express their spirituality through prayer. That represents a subset of the 4,200 or so religions in the world, though probably a significant subset. However, even among those, prayer as a publicly proclaimed exercise is not universal. I’m not a theologin, and I certainly have an incomplete understanding of most of the major world religions, but I would venture to say that the notion of a National Day of Prayer is a concept that would only be fully embraced by Christian sects. Therefore, the Day fails, on a very straightforward basis, to pass First Amendment muster.

Note that the court’s decision does not, in spite of heated headlines to the contrary, state that prayer itself is unconstitutional.

Anyway….

supbe

I got the following hit and run comment on this post:

Yea. I don’t want my son sleeping next to a queer. NO GAYS IN BOY SCOUTS

Well, since this poster didn’t have the decency to leave a real name (or even a good fake name), I’ll just respond here.

Statistically speaking, your son is sleeping next to a queer (and may be a queer himself). There are lots of studies, and no firm conclusions, but it seems that somewhere between 5 and 20% of the population is gay; depending on how the study is conducted, the numbers stretch from 1-40%. In today’s society, young people with undefined sexuality are often unclear about it at 11 (initial scout age in the US) and still often don’t come out by 18 (exit age for scouts in the US). This was certainly true for my referenced nephew.

In any case, as repugnant as the current US Boy Scout policy is, it does not attempt to ban gay scouts; but to prevent them from attaining the rank of Eagle, which is the penultimate rank for scouts. So, the boy scouts will continue to let your gay son sleep next to queers.

Dealing with a loved one who has end stage terminal disease is wrenching. The people (usually close relatives) who have to carry out that person’s wishes (assuming they were expressed ahead of time) has to do so with compassion and wisdom, all the while watching a person who was once vital deteriorate and suffer. Often these people become someone else…whether due to the disease or the drugs used in treatment.

I was in that situation not long ago, and I was lucky that my siblings and I together worked through it, and that my parents didn’t suffer too much, it was something I would wish on nobody–but something most of us will face.

That is why it is stunning for the Republicans, and a certain failed vice presidential candidate, have created a vast lie ("death panels") from a provision in the health bill that allows for end of life counseling. It is certainly why we haven’t heard the word “compassionate” anywhere near the term “conservative” for a good long while.

These people will simply stoop to the most blatant of lies to prevent any kind of health insurance reform. It’s a bit trite, but it seems more and more true that the members of Congress who are opposing the bill are doing so…because they have health insurance. And that’s all that counts.

(Anon.)

The NAACP turned 100, and on the anniversary of the great organization, took a bold step to oppose discrimination of all kinds. Bravo!

They are way ahead of the boy scouts. (and I added a link to Scouting for All, an organization working to end discrimination in the Scouts).

Valentina

I got a comment on a post from way back from Heidi from Puerto Rico. I’ve excerpted some of it below. I suppose she is right that every organization has bylaws.

But Heidi, here is the difference between organizations that stick to the bylaws of their founders and those that understand that even visionary founders make mistakes. Your logic is pretty much the same logic that was used to defend keeping blacks and Jews out of organizations (or even forbidding “mixed race” marriage in some states not that long ago). They were wrong. The Boy Scouts are wrong. It’s time for change. (p.s. I’m even leaving in the typos, just because)

Here goes:

Sadly, it seems that even thou you had the honor to participate in such a organization; you never understood correctly the Boy Scour organization nor the values of the Scout promise and law.

Actually, I do. I can recite both by heart, and there is not a word in either about discriminating against gay scouts.

Every organization, such as BS, has by-laws, adopted by the founding members. As founding members, they select the mission and vision. Anyone who asks to be part of such an organization has to uphold that mission and vision. It’s that simple. That’s the way it works in EVERY AND ANY ORGANIZATION, not only for the Boy Scouts. Those who disagree with the mission and vision, who cannot uphold the by-laws, should disqualify themselves. This is the way the issue of memberships is conducted all over the world since the beginning of times.

Nope. It is the responsibility of members to change bad laws. If you are in a country with bad laws, you change them. If you are in an organization with bad laws, change those. Also, since you mention the mission and vision, I have to take a look in the boy scout mission statement to see when the mission of the boy scouts changed to discriminating against gay people. When I was in it, it was mostly about learning respect for nature. Oh, there was the nasty business of needing to believe in “god” to become an Eagle Scout, but you could still go camping if you didn’t do the god thing.

Furthermore, I have never been able to find in the Holy Bible not even the smallest sentence or phrase that says anything about confused individuals.

OK, kids, this one threw me for a loop. Whose holy bible? For all their flaws, the boy scouts take and honor pretty much any religion. So who is confused? And who cares?

I invite you to reflect and avoid this kind of expressions that only hurt your family.

Heidi, my family is pretty damn happy about my support for equal rights. Especially for a family member. To be any other way would shame them.

Lily and Stephen