The unrelenting march of secular humanism in our Republic!

Published: April 19, 2010

Will the president appeal?

Federal judge rules National Day of Prayer unconstitutional

Washington D.C. (CNA) -- A federal judge’s ruling that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional had no legal basis and was not in keeping with American traditions of expressing “dependence on the Almighty,” critics said.

On April 15, U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb in Madison, Wisconsin, declared unconstitutional a 1988 federal law giving the president authority to designate the first Thursday in May as the National Day of Prayer.

Her decision came in response to a case filed by the Madison-based atheist group Freedom from Religion Foundation, which argued it was unconstitutional because it endorses school prayer.

Judge Crabb agreed with the group, saying that atheists feel marginalized by the law, CNSNews.com reports.

Granting that many people are not harmed by the proclamation, she ruled that individuals who do not pray and feel marginalized by the government’s message of prayer suffer “a distinct harm.”

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) had represented 31 members of Congress in an amicus brief defending the National Day of Prayer.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, said the decision was badly thought out. “It is unfortunate that this court failed to understand that a day set aside for prayer for the country represents a time-honored tradition that embraces the First Amendment, not violates it," he commented, according to CNSNews.com.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), a former judge and one of the 31 congressmen backed by the ACLJ, said in his view it was “obvious” that Judge Crabb “had not received a very good education” in American history. He cited Benjamin Franklin’s exhortation to prayer at the Constitutional Convention and his motion that prayers be held in Congress every day.

Sekulow thought the case would “very likely” go to the U.S. Supreme Court, especially because the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has been “difficult at times on religion cases.”

“I think we will carry the day, but it is going to be a close case,” he continued, warning that the issue could be decided by the next appointee to the Supreme Court.

“An issue like this underscores the importance of why it's so critical for the nominee to answer direct questions about their judicial philosophy, how they view the role of judges, and their view of the rule of law,” Sekulow continued.

President Barack Obama, his press secretary Robert Gibbs, and National Day of Prayer Task Force Chairman Shirley Dobson were named as defendants in the suit. According to CNSNews.com, Judge Crabb dismissed the case against Dobson.

Dobson, the wife of Focus on the Family Founder Dr. James Dobson, also cited American history as justification for the practice. “Since the days of our Founding Fathers, the government has protected and encouraged public prayer and other expressions of dependence on the Almighty,” she said in a Thursday statement. “This is a concerted effort by a small but determined number of people who have tried to prohibit all references to the Creator in the public square, whether it be the Ten Commandments, the Pledge of Allegiance, or the simple act of corporate prayer -- this is unconscionable for a free society.”

Joel Oster, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), said the Day of Prayer was “America’s heritage.”

“ADF urges the Obama administration to appeal this terrible ruling that not only undermines the National Day of Prayer, but the underlying heritage and tradition of the American people which dates back to the nation's founding,” he continued.

In 1952 President Harry Truman signed into law a joint resolution of Congress to set aside a National Day of Prayer. Congress amended the law in 1988 to establish a more particular date.

According to the ADF, all 50 governors and U.S. presidents have issued proclamations in honor of the National Day of Prayer.

CNSNews.com said that President Obama last year issued a proclamation for the National Day of Prayer but refused to host ceremonies at the White House as previous administrations had done. He said that the statute is simply an “acknowledgement of the role of religion in American life” that is similar to other ceremonial practices that courts have upheld in the past.

See:

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=b25b430d-1bb7-45e3-a116-82edd47d1e0f

Comments

[James M. Essig]

Part of the secularization of America has come about because we have lost faith in spiritual realities such as fully alive, cognizant, and affective dissembodied human souls of the deceased and in the realities of Angels.

Now, angels come in nine choirs according to common Catholic theologian interpretations of these pure created spirits.

1) The choir closest to humans are the angels and these purely spiritual beings are very caring and compassionate toward we humans. Perhaps just as we humans who are adults can love and nurture children because if for no other reason, the children are cute and adorable, or perhaps just as a young teenage girl’s loves to hug her beloved pet Golden Retriever or Newfoundland pet dog, all of we humans, good and perhaps even the most incorrigibly bad are somehow likewise endearing to the first Choir of angels known simply as angels.

2) Archangels are the next higher choir of angels although the title of Archangel can be given to angels of other choirs such as Saint Michael the Archangel as the Prince of the Seraphim of which He is a member. Saint Michael the Archangel is held to be the guardian of the Catholic Church and was victorious over Satan and the other fallen angels after the rebellion of the angels that fell. Saint Michael is a real cool angel and a good one to pray to for protection.

3) The Principalities are another class of Angels at least some of which have rebelled according to the New Testament. These fallen angels are very hostile toward GOD and human persons.

4) The Powers are Warrior Angels and are charged with defending humans and the cosmos from the evil spirits or from the fallen angels.

5) The Virtues frequently are in charge of miracles and provide humans with grace, courage and valor.

6) The Dominions are angels in leadership positions. They regulate the duties of other angels and make known GOD’s decrees and GOD’s will.

7) The Thrones are Angels characterized by Peace, Pure Humility and Submission.

8) Cherubim are the second highest choir of Angels and according to Catholic Tradition, these angels know GOD in a very intimate way, and continually praise HIM.

9) The Seraphim are the highest choir of Angels and attendants and guardians before the throne of GOD. These angels praise GOD constantly.

Now what about the mightily powerful and dark angel known as Satan? This Angel was so powerful and close to GOD in glory and nature that some say this is the reason why He rebelled against GOD and the good angels perhaps because He thought that created persons, be they angels, humans, or whatever, should worship Him instead of GOD.

Other accounts hold that this angel became angry and rebellious when He learned that THE SON OF GOD would become incarnate in a human nature instead of using Satan’s nature or Satan Himself as THE SON OF GOD’S INCARNATE NATURE.

Whatever the precise reason(s) for the rebellion of Satan and the rest of the fallen angels, these fallen angels although they act in a morally very evil manner, nonetheless, have a nature that is inherently very, very good from an ontological consideration; they just use their morally very good nature for wicked purposes.

We must not underestimate the corrupting influence Satan himself and the rest of the fallen angels have had in human history, and we must realize that Satan retains very much if not all of his natural strength and powers.

One must be careful never to worship Satan or consciously do his bidding nor make any pacts with either him, nor with any of the other fallen angels. This is a very, very dangerous thing to do, and even if you are rescued from the grips of these fallen angels as such by GOD HIMSELF, they can nonetheless wreak havoc in your life and in the lives of others.

Could there exist other choirs of angels that are higher yet, or could GOD create additional angels or additional Choirs or levels of Angels, we simply cannot know for certain at this point in time. I suspect that GOD can and might do so in the Heavenly future, or in time, however GOD marks future time. However, much is veiled to human knowledge and understanding at this point in Salvation History.

Perhaps the biggest objective material threat to human existence is the possibility of nuclear warfare which can exterminate the Human Race and GOD only knows what else. Satan must certainly have some part in humankind arming ourselves to the proverbial teeth with nuclear weapons.

Perhaps the biggest moral material threat to human civilization is the loss of the sense of the reality of sin, and the loss of the belief spiritual created realities, and the loss of the belief in the ultimate spiritual reality of GOD Himself.

Now each and every one of us, it is commonly taught, has our own Guardian Angel. Pray to your Guardian Angel daily, and even pray that if possible, when all is said and done in the DIVINE ECONOMY, even aspects of such before the Final Judgment at the End Of Time, pray that your Guardian Angel has a jump or increase in Heavenly Glory provisionally if such prayer induced graces for angels are possible. Show your Guardian Angel endearing prayerful affection. Perhaps, just perhaps, you will but a metaphorical smile on the face of your Guardian Angel.

If you can feel how cute your lovable little baby, infant, toddler, and elementary school age children are, and how cute and lovable are your pet puppies or pet kittens who like to cuddle up to you and are starved for your affection and nurturance and the endearing love and affection you show them in return, imagine such endearing love and affection amped way up on proverbial steroids being showed you by your Guardian Angel. Can you therefore not be compelled to be kind and loving in thought, deed, and attitude toward your Guardian Angel in return.

Note that although angels of all choirs are pure spirits without any form of body or shape (they only appear in human like form so as not to confound or confuse us by their majesty), discussing or considering that angels show you great spiritual affection is not a mere anthropomorphism, but can be understood, that just as we are persons, so are angels albeit of the purely spiritual variety. Angels do indeed have spiritual feelings and emotions, and I feel that our behaviors and ignoring them can and may cause these loving persons proverbial heart-ack, and perhaps even great spiritual sadness. Think of it, if the glorified Mother of GOD, who is Our Lady of Fatima, can appear to the three little children crying profusely despite being the Queen of Heaven, then most assuredly, we can cause hurt in our Guardian Angels and in other Angels by showing them disrespect or by ignoring them.

We as created persons share a solidarity with all other created persons, and all of GOD’s creatures are interdependent. You don’t believe me? Then consult the new Catechism of the Catholic Church where such interdependence is clearly stated. We in the West especially within the United States always seemed to have extolled the status of rugged individualism and independence. In a world where many nations are armed to the teeth, and where unthinkably destructive stockpiles of nuclear weapons are held on active alert, we could all stand to have a lesson in interdependence and stop thinking we are invincible. Even Christ emptied Himself on the Cross and took on a lowly human nature in order to show us that interdependence is not something to be loathed, but rather something to rejoice over.

We simply cannot fully understand the glories of such interdependence in this life, and perhaps by our genetic evolutionary ancestry, we are inherently psychologically and temperamentally adverse to accepting our interdependence when in fact, there is likely much we cannot understand regarding the nature of our interdependence and how such fits in with our yet to be glorified state in our Heavenly reward, and afterwards, in the Post Final Resurrection era after the End Of Time.

It is a sin to be an ultra rugged individualist? In most cases I doubt it, but with a world armed to the teeth with nuclear and conventional weapons, perhaps it is becoming increasingly more dangerous to be so. I say this even from the personal standpoint of being a former supporter of Cold War Era militarism in speech and in attitude. I began to convert from being a macho, angry, disaffected young adult red neck male after seeing the movie The Day After, and more significantly, after reading the a news paper about the loving kindness and nurturance of Our Lady in Her alleged Apparitions at Medjugorie and most certainly after having been enrolled in the Brown Scapula Society.

When we loose our faith in the reality of a spiritual and immortal human soul, we then replace that sense of our sacredness with allusions of invincibility by arming our civilization to the teeth and perhaps worse, allowing the whole sale holocaust of un-born babies by our country the United States. We are either for GOD or against GOD, and abortion is now accepted by many of conservative Catholics as being not their responsibility and that the U.S. government and civilization can be good while permitting this whole sale slaughter of the Holy Innocents. Are you willing to go before the throne of GOD with this attitude?

Some times it is better to show endearing kindness and empathy rather than bringing out the guns of armed conflict. I credit Our Lady’s gentle and kind prodding of me to conversion from a red neck who could not wait to read about the latest advanced weapon system, or who could not wait to get the latest edition of Guns And Ammo magazine, to someone who prays the Rosary Daily, Attends Mass several times per week, and who frequents the confessional.

GOD BLESS!

Jim

[James M. Essig]

We should set aside time to be kind to GOD. Yes, to be kind to GOD!

God has no ontological nor existential need for our kindness, but HE loves us and wants to enter into a personal relationship with each one of us at ever deeper levels.

The wealth of modern day apparitions, both approved by the Church and those pending approval, indicate that, speaking in limited human terms, GOD just cannot take our sins, blasphemies, indifferences and ingratitudes any longer.

The spread of complete nonesense such as notions that GOD is nothing other than creation as in the false doctrine of pantheism, the notion that we rational creatures are an embodied spark of GOD Himself as some form of emenation from his essense or substance, instead of the truth that we are all mere creatures which are composed fundamentally of a human soul that is directly and immeadiately created ex-nihilo, and a mortal body, and goofy psuedoscientific notions that GOD is a space alien, are shear rubbish masqueraiding as modern progressive Catholic teaching in the minds and hearts of many of the faithful.

Catholics have a special culpability in this shear nonesense as some within our ranks indulge all our time and energy in stupid practices such as Riki Healing and the whole host of other New Age practices by which some within our ranks try to achieve some sort of invulnerability or super-created status instead of taking up their crosses and excepting the limits of our created nature.

I personally relish in my weakness and daily crosses and make an offering on a dailly basis whereby I offer up my insecurities, dailly troubles, and yes, even humiliations, for the salvation of all souls, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for the souls who are meant to be but whose very existence is either aborted or threatened to be so by the nonesense of artificial contraception.

We have forgotten the distinction between Creature and Creator, and we have forgotten that we fundamentally depend on GOD. We need to learn interdependence and to accept our limitations and crosses for without the cross, there is no eternal glory.

GOD is not some puppet that we can channel by foolish hand motions such as in the New Age practice of Riki and other nonesense, and the practice of this crap opens one up to recourse to the unwhitting influence of the fallen angels.

Let's give GOD, THE GODHEAD, THE HOLY TRINITY, AS OUR LOVING FATHER, THRICE HOLY HIS due honor that recognizes the utter smallness of the entire Cosmos compared with HE WHO IS or YEHWEY, as our ancient Hebrew brothers and sisters called HIM.

And no!, I am not Jewish, in fact, I consider myself a conservative Catholic who happens to be a member of the Knights Of Columbus.

[jim]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26mc_gcrVJI