P
Pax_et_Bonum
Guest
VA changes position pastor’s invoking ‘Jesus’ in public prayer
Houston pastor fought in court after being told to edit a Memorial Day invocation
By TERRI LANGFORD
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
May 27, 2011, 11:18AM
Terri Langford Chronicle
Erin Lew, attorney for Liberty Institute, with the Rev. Scott Rainey.
Share
Del.icio.usDiggTwitterFacebookStumbleUponEmail
Resources
MORE ON THE LAWSUIT
DOCUMENTS: Lawsuit, letters and the prayer
ON HOUSTON BELIEF
Is request for inclusiveness realistic for holiday?
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs informed a federal judge in Houston today the agency has reconsidered its position on religious-specific prayer at Houston National Cemetery, agreeing a pastor can utter “Jesus Christ” during his Memorial Day prayer.
“(The agency) will let the prayer go on this Monday,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Hindrichs told U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes.
Hughes slapped down the agency on Thursday, saying it can’t stop a pastor from using the words “Jesus Christ” in his Memorial Day invocation at Houston National Cemetery.
“The government cannot gag citizens when it says it is in the interest of national security, and it cannot do it in some bureaucrat’s notion of cultural homogeneity,” Hughes wrote in his order, granting the Rev. Scott Rainey’s motion for the court to intercede. “The right to free expression ranges from the dignity of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches to Charlie Sheen’s rants.”
Read more: chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7583145.html#ixzz1NZqFtDLt
Houston pastor fought in court after being told to edit a Memorial Day invocation
By TERRI LANGFORD
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
May 27, 2011, 11:18AM
Terri Langford Chronicle
Erin Lew, attorney for Liberty Institute, with the Rev. Scott Rainey.
Share
Del.icio.usDiggTwitterFacebookStumbleUponEmail
Resources
MORE ON THE LAWSUIT
DOCUMENTS: Lawsuit, letters and the prayer
ON HOUSTON BELIEF
Is request for inclusiveness realistic for holiday?
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs informed a federal judge in Houston today the agency has reconsidered its position on religious-specific prayer at Houston National Cemetery, agreeing a pastor can utter “Jesus Christ” during his Memorial Day prayer.
“(The agency) will let the prayer go on this Monday,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Hindrichs told U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes.
Hughes slapped down the agency on Thursday, saying it can’t stop a pastor from using the words “Jesus Christ” in his Memorial Day invocation at Houston National Cemetery.
“The government cannot gag citizens when it says it is in the interest of national security, and it cannot do it in some bureaucrat’s notion of cultural homogeneity,” Hughes wrote in his order, granting the Rev. Scott Rainey’s motion for the court to intercede. “The right to free expression ranges from the dignity of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches to Charlie Sheen’s rants.”
Read more: chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7583145.html#ixzz1NZqFtDLt