{"id":21645,"date":"2014-08-29T15:38:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T19:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=21645"},"modified":"2014-08-29T15:38:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T19:38:37","slug":"the-god-problem-gets-even-worse-in-greece-ny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=21645","title":{"rendered":"The god problem gets even worse in Greece, NY"},"content":{"rendered":"

The TPM article by Sahir Kapur, Atheists Get The Shaft In New York Town After Supreme Court Ruling<\/a>., begins:<\/p>\n

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Earlier this year, the Supreme Court gave its blessing to local governments that want to open their public meetings with religious prayer.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a victory for the town board of Greece, N.Y., which stressed that it was fighting not just for Christian prayer but for the right of all people express their views regardless of their faith. In a 5-4 ruling<\/a> along ideological lines, the Court ruled against the Jewish and atheist plaintiffs, who argued that the practice violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Less than four months later, the town of Greece has adopted an invocation policy<\/a> that excludes non-religious citizens and potentially shuts out faiths that aren’t well-established in the town, according to a top secular group.<\/em><\/p>\n

Seeking to “avail itself of the Supreme Court’s recognition” that government prayer is constitutional, the new policy restricts opening remarks to “assemblies with an established presence in the Town of Greece that regularly meet for the primary purpose of sharing a religious perspective.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Translation: atheists and agnostics need not apply. And unless the board clerk decides that your faith has an “established presence” in the New York town of fewer than 100,000, you may not deliver an invocation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Barry Lynn, the executive director the Americans United For Separation of Church and State, torched the new policy as unconstitutional and a warning sign for cities and towns all across the United States which may seek to adopt a similar policy.<\/em><\/p>\n

You know, it occurs to me that the recent landmark decisions by The Five on this Supreme Court have obverse aspects of the seven wishes schlubby Dudley Moore is granted by devastating devil Peter Cook in the brilliant 1967 comedy, “Bedazzled.”<\/a><\/p>\n

As Moore attempts over and over to “perfect” his wishes \u2212 filling in all the holes which Cook has warned he will slip through (“It’s my job,” Cook says in effect. “I’m the devil, that’s what I do”) \u2212 Cook’s debonair Satan snakes into every activated wish and wrecks Moore’s dreams.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court’s decisions, unlike Moore’s more and more obsessively detailed wishes, are the opposite \u2212 so simplistic they become the devil’s playground without him, i.e., the Devil, doing any work whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Did I just call The Five acolytes of Satan? Hey, why not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The TPM article by Sahir Kapur, Atheists Get The Shaft In New York Town After Supreme Court Ruling., begins: Earlier this year, the Supreme Court gave its blessing to local governments that want to open their public meetings with religious … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[632],"tags":[650],"class_list":["post-21645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-god-problem","tag-first-amendment-rights"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t