January 28, 2007

The Lord's Prayer Has No Business At Council Meetings


Durham Council Votes To Continue Saying Lord's Prayer

This is just more theocratic nonsense by Christians trying to rise above their insecurities. Yeah, the poor picked on Christians. Oooh, the Atheists are out to get them.

"The Lord's Prayer is a Christian prayer, and there's not just Christians within the council or in the meetings," said Mark Robinson of the Humanist Society of Canada.

"Everybody in there should be looked at as one, and what that prayer does is single out Christians."

News to Christians: This isn't Saudi Arabia. Canada is not a theocracy just because it was founded by mostly Christians. Heck, the early founders of Canada didn't even have any information on evolution or the Big Bang. They had no choice but believe in the invisible man in the sky. If Canada was founded in 1200, the founding fathers would have believed the sun revolves around the earth.

Canada is a secular country. There are Catholics, Baptist, Jews, Atheists, Agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. The Lord's Prayer is a Christian prayer. If said in public it EXCLUDES everyone who isn't Christian. Where do Christians get off?

Lets not forget that the Lord's Prayer, being recited in unison, in a government building, violates the Charter of Rights. Yeah, it is against the law.

Lets take me as an example. I had to listen to the Lord's Prayer in public school in the mid 60's. I'm not sure when they removed it, but I was glad they did. I was in grade one and two and the words in the prayer conjured up visions of death to me.
Why was I, a 7 year old boy, born and raised in Toronto as a secular Jew, exposed to Christian Fundamentalism in a public school?

It was just as wrong then, as it is now.

Even the Christians can't come to agreement on which prayer is the "right" one. And they can't even agree if the Lord's Prayer has to do with life on earth, or planning for Jesus' return and shortly thereafter, or both.

I used to think "hallowed be thy name," was really "how will it be thy name." I wonder if Christians who spew it out like a herd of sheep know what the words mean.

If the prayer is to try to ensure that God is watching over you and attempting to keep you away from doing shitty things on a daily basis. The Prayer should be made at home. What if you are tempted on your way to the meeting? What if you are married and you see a gorgeous half naked hitch hiker on your way to a council meeting? God won't help you, because you didn't pray to him yet.

I'm at the stage in my life where I just find this stuff annoying and slightly offensive. And in this case, there is no need for me to turn the other cheek.

Since Christians think it is their right to annoy and offend people like me, because they think they have more rights in this country than I do. And Durham thinks they can circumvent the laws by reciting the Prayer prior to each meeting. Here is how to put an end to it:

If anyone is at a meeting and is even slightly offended by the recital of the Lord's Prayer they should recite something out and try to drown out the nonsense being spewed.

As soon as the Prayer begins, how about yelling this out:

"Praise Allah, Allah Akbar" or "You Christians are funny, you pray to a dead Jew" or
"There is no evidence a historical Jesus ever existed, and God is a man made concept. There is no God," or, how about just putting your hands under you armpits while the prayer is going and make that weird farting sound by moving your biceps up and down until most of the board members spew out Amen. Or how about just sacrificing a chicken for luck prior to the meeting.

The above isn't more absurd than bringing the Lords Prayer to a public place. And all the above is legal (OK maybe not the chicken sacrifice), unlike the reciting of the Lords Prayer.

Christians may find this offensive and annoying too. But Christians aren't hypocrites.....or are they?

I have no problem if the council members want to meet early at someone's home or how about a church (too obvious), and recite whatever the hell they want to recite. I don't care if they want to carpool and speak in tongues on their way to work. But keep this crap out of the government halls.

More discussion at CBC.ca

22 comments:

  1. Another plagiarised piece of tripe. You should really ask major turd mikey from jualala to give you a hand since he is a "published author" not.

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  2. Rickey, you should get at least a partial refund from your ESL teacher. You obviously don't have a clue what plagiarism is.

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  3. Basically, if you are being compelled to recite a religious ppeal (prayer), you are being compelled to believe that whatever the prayer is, is true. In other words, you are having religion foisted upon you.

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  4. I don't think anyone deserves to have an online stalker, especially one that creates an anti-you website. This guy is seriously warped. Go get a life Rickey.

    Rickey Don't Lose That Number by Steely Dan

    We hear you're leaving, that's OK
    I thought our little wild time had just begun,
    I guess you kind of scared yourself, you turn and run
    But if you have a change of heart.

    Rikki don't lose that number;
    You don't wanna call nobody else.
    Send it off in a letter to yourself.
    Rikki don't lose that number;
    It's the only one you own.
    You might use it if you feel better,
    When you get home.

    I have a friend in town, he's heard your name.
    We can go out driving on Slow Hand Row
    We could stay inside and play games I don't know
    And you could have a change of heart.

    Rikki don't lose that number;
    You don't wanna call nobody else.
    Send it off in a letter to yourself.
    Rikki don't lose that number;
    It's the only one you own.
    You might use it if you feel better,
    When you get home.

    You tell yourself you're not my kind
    But you don't even know your mind.
    And you could have a change of heart.

    Rikki don't lose that number;
    You don't wanna call nobody else.
    Send it off in a letter to yourself.
    Rikki don't lose that number;
    It's the only one you own.
    You might use it if you feel better,
    When you get home.

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  5. The corpulent blog host needs to be exposed for the fake, fraud and charlatan he is. He doesn't drive and never leaves the house. His wife must work to pay the bills and cover his gambling debts. How messed up is that. My blog has posts of his writings which show his schizoid and warped mind. Stalker my ass.

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  6. Rickey, it is you who has been exposed as a mentally ill, obsessed, immature stalker.

    You didn't know I didn't drive until I mentioned it, so how is that exposing me? My wife works only 3 days a week. I cover almost all the house bills. I will grant you that I don't leave the house a lot because I work from my house.

    Yes, you are Owned by me, Rickey.

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  7. I think there are two Frank Waltons, the hateful immature one and the one who pretends to be him.

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  8. Why do you always look so scroungy and unkempt in your photos?

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  9. mark kotex

    I don't see your yarmulke covered possum faced head on your profile, hymie.

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  10. BEAJ -

    This is why you should start ignoring Rickey. No matter how dumb a troll is, he will ruin your comment threads unless you ignore him.

    I'll admit I enjoy reading your sharp-tongued put-downs of moron Rickey, but you'll notice he's starting to drive out serious talk or clever jokes. This whole thread is about HIM.

    This is the last time I'll mention him, however. So I'm sorry if I seem to be joining in the indirect encouraging.

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  11. BEAJ:
    So, fill me in - y'all have the SOCAS in Canada, no?
    I wonder what prayer they open the City Council w/ in Dearbourne?
    It'd be nice if these people stopped being so SHARING all the time, wouldn't it?

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  12. Mike, you are right. That said, I need to ignore your post.

    KA, we sort of have it here. It is subject to change on a provincial or territorial basis. In 1999, the Lord's Prayer was deemed illegal in a government hall in Ontario though:

    'Henry Freitag was the person who prompted the 1999 court decision that stated that reciting the Lord's Prayer in public violated the Charter of Rights.

    The 70-year-old Holocaust survivor sued the town of Pentanguishene because he didn't think it was appropriate to recite the prayer at council meetings. He refused to run for office in the municipality because the tradition went against his personal beliefs.

    The Ontario Court of Appeal agreed with Freitag, ruling that the recitation of the prayer at a public meeting violated his right to freedom of religion under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.'

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  13. Mark Cotex sounds very much like Rob Boner.

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  14. Hey BEAJ, I think a pastafarian needs to run for that council and demand that s/he be allowed to recite a prayer to the FSM each time. This might show them how ridiculous it is. Maybe. Then again, we have to consider the mentality of what we're dealing with.

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  15. hey beaj

    always stop by from the blogs aggregated, and I must say, I don't always agree with you, but I'm appalled by a certain troll who seems to have you in his sights. seriously, what is up with this guy? keep up the good work and keep posting!!!

    Didi

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  16. Lisa, if Fundies can't see how ridiculous a 6000 year old universe is, a FSM prayer will mean nothing to them.

    Didi, but I'm hardly ever wrong....

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  17. Does the FSM get confused when we thank him (her? it?) for bread? For wine?

    I mean, technically shouldn't we be thanking the Flying Bread Monster & the Flying Wine Monster, respectively, for those items?

    Italian meals are multi-dimensional. I think Pastafarianism is actually *gasp* polytheistic, so the Fundies would be really up in arms for that one.

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  18. Mike I'd appreciate it if you didn't peddle your Ultra Reform FSM beliefs here.
    It is a sin to worship worship other food Gods. You will realize this when you go to Pastahell.

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  19. You've been hearing it wrong. It's "Harold be thy name." And it ends "Lead us not into Penn Station, Amen."

    Rickey is starting to get worrisome. Some cyberstalkers expand into other forms of activity that can be harder to laugh off.

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  20. Your groupies remind me of tweedle dumb and tweedle dee.

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  21. It is a sin to worship worship other food Gods

    Ahhhhhh. I get it now. You'd be a Bacon-Eating, Flying Bacon Monster-Worshipping Jew . . . if only that damn FSM wasn't such a jealous god.

    I admire your orthodoxy.

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  22. You think you had problems with the lord's prayer.

    When I went to school (in the dark ages), we had to sing "God Save the Queen" on parade whilst staring at a photo of queenie with our right hands over our hearts.

    Children who didn't comply were summarily slapped or caned. Nothing like instilling the fear and adoration of authority at a young age. lol

    Unfortunately, we have a lot of rightwing nuts (and yes, they ARE rightwing nuts and not leftwing nuts), who want to bring it back.

    Not sure if the slapping or caning is included, but I will imagine that could be part of the deal.

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