Sound Off – Federal Marshalls in Attendance?

A judge in Galveston, TX has ruled that if any student mentioned the name of Jesus Christ in a prayer or otherwise at this year’s graduation ceremony, they would face up to 6 months incarceration and “make them wish they’d never been born” before he’s done with them. Federal Marshalls will be in attendance to enforce his decision.

America…….. Land of the Free? This is not freedom. This is not equality. This is unconstitutional.

I’ve never oppressed any faith denomination, whether it be atheist, agnostic, Jew, Buddhist, Islam, Hindu, Muslim, tribal, spiritual, scientific, cult, or even Satanist. But practicing the right to exercise faith as a Christian will now get you time in jail??? How can anyone say this is justifiable? How can anyone say this is equal? How can anyone continue believing that this is the land of the FREE? This is persecution folks. The adopted morals for the establishment of this nation are under fire like never before and it’s time to dig deep…… REAL DEEP…… and ask yourself what it is you stand for. This will bleed over into other things…… history ensures it through our continued ignorance. “Live and let live” is going to land some people in jail. For what crime? WHAT IS THE CRIME????

We fought through WWII, a war in which found the Jewish peoples in severe persecution, torture, and murder. 60 years have past and no one seems to see the similarities. Unbelieveable.

The biggest war we face to today isn’t terrorism. It’s the preservation of this great nation and the biggest battles being waged are right here on our soil. THIS election year is critical and we can no longer turn the other cheek. A line has been crossed and it’s time for the people to get re-acquainted with their backbones and STAND UP and protect the equalities we all profess to believe in and freely practice.

If these practices are allowed to continue, we might as well tear down the Statue of Liberty and apologize to every soldier who ever fought in the name of freedom. Hundreds of thousands will have died in vain.

Are we men? Are we created equal? Are we allowed to pursue life and liberty?

Today…….. I heard an eagle cry……….

Still, is this credible information? I can’t believe it! I would think it’s the other way around…if you don’t mention His name you would wish you would never have been born.

I thought it was just the St Croix that was going to hell in a hand basket. (because of the damn bass fisherman)

Here is one of Ronald Wilson Reagan’s better quotes, “History is riddled of wreakage of nations that turned their back on God”. We must remember God is not on our side but we are on his! If this is true then the state of Texas is not that Great.

I didn’t catch the judge’s name but it’s been all over KTIS 98.5FM the last 2 mornings. Having heard about it a 2nd time this morning, I was able to remember the details better, but I didn’t catch his name.

There are other things going on that proclaim clear discrimination and unequal treatment, but this is the first I have heard of jail time.

If I lived in Galveston, I’d be out of this desk and forming a crusade to attend that ceremony as well. Get 10,000 people or so willing to stand up, not necessarily for Christianity, but for equality and freedom, and have him try and throw everyone in the klink!

I’d really like to know what actions can be taken against this judge for not upholding our rights to practice our personal faiths freely? If a student body wants someone to say a prayer, it’s usually 2 minutes of “God thinking” and 2 hours of “Without God thinking”. It’s not asking too much. It’s not a sermon or message for conversion. It’s a request over a student body that the hands of any superior life might guide and direct them for prosperous living! After this short request, the entire gathering is entitled to conduct themselves as they see fit, within the guidelines of the law, at least.

This has GOT to make national news…… this is HUGE!

I don’t even feel like fishin’!!!

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I don’t even feel like fishin’!!!

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Okay Ken, now you’ve gone too far! Actually I agree with you in principle on this.

Bill of Rights
Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Show me where in the above it states that this judge has the ability to threaten what it says that he has. If you say that the separation of church and state prohibits him from saying that, then you’ve made the freedom FROM religion more important that the freedom of speech. How can you possibly do that?
Although you may not always agree with everything they do, I would be willing to bet that the ACLU will get into this if anything comes of this.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”

Is this not CLEARLY prohibiting the free exercise thereof? The kids graduating are not in any way goverment employees or instruments of the state. They should be able to say anything they darn well please (within reason).

I wonder how the shoe would fall if it were reversed. I see no mention that it will be a crime to bring up the name of Budda, Allah, or Ra the Sun God.

What a bunch of crap.

Ken;
Don’t get me wrong, by any means. We have chatted before

But this just doesn’t seem right. I can’t beleive this. Is the credibility of the radio station legit? Or is it a “political” station? What I mean, is that there are “media” groups who put out info that is “corrupted” or “misinterpreted”.

Personnaly, I would think that any individual with a Christian religion could sue this person (judge or not) for violation of civil rights through freedom of speach.

After reading it again, I think Gary may be right.

Can you find confirmation anywhere?

I’m not going to get any work done today…….. am I? I’ve never had any reason to doubt the reportings of KTIS. They’re news bulletins are on national syndication and to have it on 2 mornings in a row……. somebody’d be recanting by now if it wasn’t legit.

I’ll see what I can dig up over lunch……. which I can take at 11:00am today. Stay tuned…………

Thanks Ken;

Let us know what you find out.

Google didn’t turn up anything recent for me so I’ve contacted the radio station for some input on getting more information. I’ll keep you posted………

I did see that KTIS has the second highest rated morning show, ousting Dave Lee (WCCO 830AM) to the #3 spot. I hope they didn’t get misled……. 250,00+ listeners every morning ………. I wouldn’t want to get that many people wound up if it weren’t legit……

I found this article after doing a Google search. I don’t know if this is the one they were talking about, since this is from a 1998 event.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/70/story_7003_1.html

Justices make no comment in turning aside case of valedictorian who wrote speech lower court called a ‘religious sermon.’

By Laurie Asseo

WASHINGTON, March 5 (AP) – A California high school valedictorian who was barred from giving a graduation speech in which he planned to ask the audience to “accept God’s love” and live by “Jesus’ example” lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.

The court, without comment, turned down the former student’s argument that public school district officials violated his rights by refusing to let him give a speech that a lower court described as a “religious sermon.”
Last June the justices ruled that public schools cannot let students lead stadium crowds in prayer before football games. The ruling said allowing such prayers would violate the constitutionally required separation of government and religion.

In 1992 the justices barred clergy-led prayers – invocations and benedictions – at public school graduation ceremonies.

Chris Niemeyer was co-valedictorian of his graduating class at Oroville High School in June 1998. He submitted an advance copy of his speech to school officials, who told him he must tone down the religious references in it.

In the speech, he planned to ask the audience to “pattern our lives after Jesus’ example” and to “accept God’s love and grace.” The proposed speech also said, “God seeks a personal relationship with each one of us … Jesus wants to be our best friend.”

After Niemeyer refused to change the speech, he was not allowed to deliver it at the graduation.

He filed a civil-rights lawsuit seeking financial damages from school district officials. A federal judge ruled against him, as did the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last October.

The proposed speech was “a religious sermon” and allowing it as part of the graduation ceremony “would amount to government sponsorship of, and coercion to participate in, particular religious practices,” the appeals court said.

In the appeal acted on Monday, Niemeyer’s lawyers said the appeals court’s ruling “runs directly counter to the Supreme Court’s historic protection of preaching and religious invitations as fully protected First Amendment free speech activity.”

The school district’s lawyers said the proposed speech was a “religious testimonial” and that to allow it would violate church-state separation. His co-valedictorian, who was Jewish, had raised objections to the speech, they added.

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I would think it’s the other way around…if you don’t mention His name you would wish you would never have been born.

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Bump

Brian, have I mentioned lately that You da Man!

Nope….. that’s not it. This was talking about having federal marshalls attend the ceremony to enforce a threat of jail time.

I’d be going to jail I’d guess, I think I could find some relegios backing to help me in my cause

I would stand up and yell his name at the top of my lungs and if they didn’t like, then they could arrest me. I know for a fact, that if this was true, I would be finding me a great lawyer to fight this. I will always stand up for what i believe in and will face the punishment with his help, guidance, and his peace.

thanks

shane

It’s got to be ratings week. I did a number of searches and found nothing. AND you would think it would be everywhere.

Ken, you have to work on that “don’t even feel like fishing” thing…that could be harmful.!

Here’s a link to a story on it.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35420

This site talks about it too, about half way down the page.
http://www.worldviewweekend.com/book/chapter10.shtml

This article claims the ACLU is behind it.
http://www.users.mis.net/~dcgay/aclu.htm

This looks like the recipe for those who want more info:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Judge+Samuel+B.+Kent+Jesus

Thanks for the research guys! I wasn’t able to come up with anything last Friday and the radio station never did get back to me. I am disappointed to find that I’m about a year too late in announcing something “new”….. but a date wasn’t given in the report I listened to.

The point that it was proclaimed, still bothers me but at least the judge had to back up and re-evaluate his instructions because of a large outcry from the public. It’s encouraging to see people get involved when needed.

The bigger picture still suggests that this is only getting worse and this won’t be the last time people need to make a stand for what they believe in.

Thanks to all for your patience and assistance regarding my “sound off”. This is obviously a very important subject to me and I owe a debt of gratitude to all who have been considerate of my view in both reply and silence.

Have a great day everyone!

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This is obviously a very important subject to me

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It’s very important to all…anytime government or anyone for that matter imposes restrictions on speach. Because it was about religion…it makes it that much worse.

You think the Judge “wishes he was never born” or at least never made those comments?

What happened to this judge?

The article was hard to read….it seems that most religions are given a free pass in schools except the christian faith. It also seems the teachers are the first to cry fowl and go running to closest school lawyer. If a child is saying a prayer to themselves or with a group that is all in acceptance…..I don’t see the problem.

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What happened to this judge?

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As far as I know, nothing. He just had to back off and quickly change his tune to better appease his public. He was apparently afraid of receiving some heat from higher courts, which is where it was going to be headed.