[NYTr] Prayer Nixed at Rite for Victims

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Previous articles:

FFRF Gets Religious rah-rah out of Wisc. "Justice" Ceremony - 9/21/07
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070917/068873.html

FFRF: Keep "Day of Remembrance" for Murder Victims Secular - 9/18/07
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070917/068718.html


AP via Capitol Times - Sep 22-23, 2007
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/247320

Prayer nixed at rite for victims

Ryan Foley
Associated Press

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has removed religious content from
a memorial service for murder victims planned for next week after a
watchdog group complained.

A religious hymn called "This Too Shall Pass" and a closing prayer by a
Lutheran pastor will not be included in the ceremony as initially
planned, department spokesman Kevin St. John said Friday.

The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation complained Tuesday
that the hymn and the prayer at the state-sponsored event would violate
the separation of church and state guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

After a review, St. John said the department agreed the content was on
shaky constitutional footing.

"Rather than create the unintentional appearance that the state was
endorsing religion or a particular creed, the department amended the
program to exclude those parts," he said. "We certainly wouldn't want
to have an appearance of a potential church-state violation overshadow
the event."

He said the event, scheduled at the Capitol on Tuesday, would be the
first of its kind in Wisconsin. Other events will take place around the
country, including one in Washington, as part of the National Day of
Remembrance for Murder Victims.

Pastor Charles Peterson, who had been scheduled to deliver the closing
prayer, said he believed other ceremonies would include prayer. He said
prayer can help mourners discover their spirituality.

"That's what people are looking for when they take part in a
remembrance like this," he said. "I don't think they are looking for
liberal politics."

As for the state's decision to cancel his prayer, he said: "That's fine
with me. That's their loss, not mine."

The foundation, the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics,
praised Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's office for quickly
addressing its protest. The group said it complained on behalf of
family members of murder victims and state employees who will take part
in the event.

In the complaint, group co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said the
lyrics to the religious hymn would offend some in the audience "by
advancing the idea that the murder of their beloved child was part of a
deity's plan!"

She cited the following passage: "He'll never give you more than you
can bear/This too shall pass / So in this thought be comforted/It's in
His hands."

"Grieving and vulnerable families should not be proselytized by state
government or be told how or what they are expected to believe," Gaylor
wrote. "The state should not be selecting which minister, which
denomination or which religion should confer blessings, thereby
excluding all the rest of us."

Gaylor also asked Van Hollen to scrap the religious overtones of an
annual ceremony at the Capitol that commemorates law enforcement
officials who died in the line of duty.

She said that event inappropriately included a chaplain, prayer and a
rendition of "Amazing Grace."

St. John said state officials participate in the event but it is hosted
by a nonprofit group. As a result, he said, "there's nothing about that
ceremony which would run afoul of the First Amendment."