The United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, on November 30, 2005, enjoined the Indiana Legislature from opening its sessions with sectarian prayer. Following the United States Supreme Court decision regarding the Nebraska legislature, the Marsh case, the Indiana federal court ordered the Indiana Legislature to conduct its opening prayer tradition like this:
“In this case, for the reasons set forth above, plaintiffs are entitled to a permanent injunction against the Speaker in his official capacity barring him from permitting sectarian prayer as part of the official proceedings of the Indiana House of Representatives. If the Speaker chooses to continue any form of legislative prayer, he shall advise persons offering such a prayer (a) that it must be nonsectarian and must not be used to proselytize or advance any one faith or belief or to disparage any other faith or belief, and (b) that they should refrain from using Christ’s name or title or any other denominational appeal.â€
Gene Veith, writing for World Magazine, brought this decision, to my attention at least, in the December 17th issue of World Magazine, in his review of the decision, when he noted that the decision eliminated religious diversity by banning sectarian prayer, but allowed non-sectarian prayer, i.e., uni-prayer [my word not his, but probably not a new term since the invention of the uni-sex concept]. Mr. Veith also noted that Christian prayer is incapable of encompassing meaningful uni-prayer.
The legislative session prayer cases are more worrisome to me than the public school prayer or public school curriculum cases. To avoid that problem, Christians simply have to learn how to tithe and start their own schools. Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have been doing so for generations and while not perfect, have set an example for nearly everyone else. But, legislatures cannot be privatized. The Indiana federal court has taken us one more step away from non-sectarian government toward a form of uni-religion and uni-prayer that will one day become the standard of the politically correct.
