Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 18:27:29 -0400 (EDT) From: A Jay Eddy Broward Log Cabin Club of Florida "Progressive Republicans" P.O. Box 1281, Ft.Lauderdale, FL 33302 ************************************************************* FORCING PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS CHALLENGES RELIGIOUS EQUALITY Broward Log Cabin Progressive Florida Republicans agree with Arthur Teitelbaum, Southern Regional Director of the Anti- Defamation League, that the decision of Governor Chiles on organized public institutional prayer prevents "religious controversy and divisiveness in our public schools." Republicans who are fiscally conservative and socially moderate find more value in the fact that "a family that prays together stays together" and having government legislate prayer does little to alter the course of the alleged decaying family structure, social morality and loyalty to what this great nation should stand for. Had Florida Representative Daniel Webster of Orlando suggested that fathers reduce their work schedule of 60 and 80 plus hours weekly in order to join family for evening home-dinner prayer he may have shed some light on what is happening to TV addicted children where the electronic monitor has become both mother and father. Had Rep. Webster talked more about corruption in leverage buy-outs, lawyer-judge BAR membership as a conflict of public interest, the real reasons behind bank failures, insurance industry corruption, greed, immoral down-sizing, the real unemployment figures dealing with those who are no longer eligible for benefits, etc., he might have been acting more on behalf of the principal needs of society than the needs of those special interest groups carving out the American pie for themselves alone. Let's get back to the real meat and potatoes issues of today and off the track of smoke-screened evangelical exclusionary issues pushed by politically active fundamental extremists who refuse to comprehend the basic honesty in the "Golden Rule" while bearing false witness because of a skewed agenda often attacking scapegoat minorities. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, making prayer and other political issues a smoke-screen facade for what is really affecting the social and financial needs of this nation is a ploy to take the light of accountability and credibility off those it must and should shine upon. Log Cabin Club President M. Warren asks "What good is legislated recital of half-hearted-meaningless-mumbled prayer, in forced unison, if the real essence of meditative union and/or communion with our Creator has been removed/lost by policed enforcement?"