Christians need to come out of closet and end their silence. Stand up for Jesus. Fight the good fight. Stand up for our Christian faith. Demand apologies. Demand firings. Demand tolerance. End Christophobia.
Support FOXNEWS because they are the only ones who report this stuff. They are the only ones in the media who expose the bigotry and intolerance of the Christ-hating anti-God secular mob.
Maybe thats why they dominate ratings year after year.
Houston Veterans Claim Censorship of Prayers, Including Ban on ‘God’ and ‘Jesus’
Published June 29, 2011 FoxNews.com
Veterans in Houston say the Department of Veterans Affairs is consistently censoring their prayers by banning them from saying the words “God” and “Jesus” during funeral services at Houston National Cemetery.
Three organizations — the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion and the National Memorial Ladies — allege that the cemetery’s director and other government officials have created “religious hostility” at the cemetery and are violating the First Amendment. According to court documents filed this week in federal court, the cemetery’s director, Arleen Ocasio, has banned saying “God” at funerals and requires prayers be submitted in advance for government approval, MyFoxHouston.com reports.
“People are doing things out there that I feel like they shouldn’t be,” Vietnam veteran Jim Rodgers told the website.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement that it “respects every veteran and their family’s right to burial service that honors their faith tradition.” The department employs nearly 1,000 chaplains who preside over religious burials, according to the statement.
However, the new allegations come one month after a controversy surrounding Pastor Scott Rainey’s prayer in Jesus’ name at a Memorial Day service in the cemetery. U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes ruled May 26 that the government couldn’t stop Rainey from using the words “Jesus Christ” in his invocation. Hughes issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the Department of Veterans Affairs from censoring Rainey’s prayer.
“The hostile and discriminatory actions by the Veterans Affairs officials in Houston are outrageous, unconstitutional and must stop,” said Jeff Mateer, an attorney with Liberty Institute, which filed the original lawsuit on behalf of the veterans groups. “Government officials who engage in religious discrimination against citizens are breaking the law. Sadly, this seems to be a pattern of behavior at the Houston VA National Cemetery.”
Judge Hughes gave the government until July 15 to respond to the new allegations and set a status hearing for July 21, Mateer said.
Ocasio couldn’t be reached for comment on Tuesday, MyFoxHouston.com reports.
“We were told we could no longer say ‘God bless you’ and ‘God bless your family,’” Marilyn Koepp, a volunteer with the National Memorial Ladies, told the website. “How did I feel? I probably shouldn’t say how I felt because it was absolutely appalling that this woman would come aboard and tell us we cannot say ‘God bless you.’”
(FOXNEWS.COM)
to whom it may concern. if you don’t believe in God and someone says God bless you, why does it bother you so much? can’t you accept that they are trying to be nice to you ?
do you attack all beliefs? or just the one that turns the other cheek. The safe one to attack. God bless you.
for speech to be free it has to be free for everyone . even if they don’t agree with you.
i get aggroed on that kind of stuff. Who cares wat a little group of atheists think. God stiil on the dollar bill!!!!!!!!!