Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day’s floor session wasn’t a prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in “repentance,” and about half the 60-member body did so. Both the Arizona House and Senate begin their sessions with a prayer and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
“When there’s a time set aside to pray and to pledge, if you are a non-believer, don’t ask for time to pray,” said Smith, of Maricopa. “If you don’t love this nation and want to pledge to it, don’t say I want to lead this body in the pledge, and stand up there and say, ‘you know what, instead of pledging, I love England’ and (sit) down.
“That’s not a pledge, and that wasn’t a prayer, it’s that simple,” Smith said.
What a total moron. Another one of those christianists that think love of country is somehow linked to love of a mythical deity….correction “THEIR” mythical deity.
Luckily, there are some who can hit right back…
Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai, who represents a northern Arizona district on the Navajo reservation, did take offense. She said Smith’s criticism of another member’s faith, or lack of it, was wrong.
“I want to remind the House and my colleagues and everybody here that several of us here are not Christianized. I’m a traditional Navajo, so I stand here every day and participate in prayers,” even without personally embracing them, said Peshlakai, D-Cameron. “This is the United States, this is America, and we all represent different people … and you need to respect that. Your God is no more powerful than my God. We all come from the same creator.”
While I disagree about the same creator garbage, it’s nice to point out every now and then that there are other religions besides the one that claims both the majority AND persecution.
I waited and waited for the WingNutDaily story to pop up about this, and not because of the commentary of whoever wrote it, but for the comments. Let’s get to it…
“I-I-I’m,” she laughed. “I’m actually an atheist.”
“Oh, you are? All right,” Blitzer said with a chuckle. “But you made the right call.”
“Yup – we are here,” she said, laughing. “And, you know, I don’t blame anybody for thanking the Lord.”
“Of course not,” Blitzer responded.
So…what do the wonderful and intelligent readers of WND have to say about it?
sha49tn – I’m on a fixed income, so can’t afford to donate. (I can barely pay my bills) But, I AM, & DID, pray for the people in Ok. I do the same for anybody in a bad situation like that. But, I do agree with the comment by Ms. Drescher. Prayers are not magic, & according the the Bible, ‘He heareth NOT prayers of the sinner’.(My emphasis) So, the atheists don’t have to worry about Beyonce, & the rest of her ilk ‘praying’. God knew every person that was going to lose their lives in this tragedy, & He was with all of the 7 children, plus any of the adults that knew to call on him.
God knew every person that was going to lose their lives, and killed them anyway…and left what behind to comfort their kin? A bunch of survivors thanking him for sparing their lives? Spare me please.
Peter Timber – Animals have instincts and obey them while man has the bible to guide him. God is the bible and his guidance gives us a positive life giving code. Some men do not believe in God and wither away or think they do not believe and smug along. What goes around comes around so whatever you believe will be visited upon you one way or the other.
What exactly is “smug along?” because I LOVE that phrase. Anyway, if what goes around comes around, those kids that god killed must have all been EBIL!
Mys77- Even atheists know at the moment they are facing their own death, will and do call on the name of God almighty. And God wants us all to pray for blessings, courgage and peace when we see others suffering. Only the arrogant and lost think prayer is worthless.
I’m arrogant, yes. Lost? No. and I don’t “think” prayer is worthless, I’m well aware of this fact.
BlueViolets – Change of pace hearing a polite comment from an atheist. Makes you remember that not all atheists are of the rabid variety that we are usually subjected to for the sole purpose of dividing the country and causing chaos.
Change of pace is hilarious, and a little insulting, so I love it. Kinda reminds me of this…
jaydee- There are those that wear their beliefs on their sleeve including atheists. There are those that go about their lives living their religion quietly and in church. There are those that believe in doing small acts with great love. There are those that cannot afford to send money, but can sit and say a prayer for those who are in need. I believe that there is great power in prayer and sometimes God says, “No”. To those that don’t believe, I ask you not to judge so quickly. This gal was not militant and was quite gracious.
See? There are some sensible folks at WND!….but then…
James said “the fervent prayers of a righteous man availeth much”. If this woman went through this tornado she PRAYED to GOD the whole time it was happening. After it was over and she was alright she then returned to being an atheist. We all know that. There are no atheists in fox holes or any other place of extreme danger. Prayers that are to benefit NOBODY but you are selfish and GOD doesn’t like that. Those of us who have no money to send can ask GOD to help these people and IF we are on a 1st name basis (meaning HE hears from us enough to know more than just what we want HIM to give us) HE will hear and answer our prayers.
Why do christians have this thing about “atheists in foxholes?” Why are they so adamant that people in crisis will always appeal to a higher power? It’s baffling to me, and shows that somehow, there is NO WAY anyone could lack belief in their god.
I’m going to leave it there, my point is made. I have a very strange addiction to reading RWNJ comments on stories about “mah people” especially from nutball sites like WND. I’ll seek therapy.
The wingnuts have been applauding the (apparent) failure of the Chevy Volt, Fisker Motors, Solyndra…you know, because Jesus. Then comes today’s excellent news…
Tesla Motors announced that it has paid off the entire loan awarded to the company by the Department of Energy in 2010. In addition to payments made in 2012 and Q1 2013, today’s wire of almost half a billion dollars ($451.8M) repays the full loan facility with interest. Following this payment, Tesla will be the only American car company to have fully repaid the government.
As adept as today’s GOP is at celebrating failure, I wonder if they have it in them to salute this?
“I think the President will ultimately be forced to repudiate his own signature piece of legislation because the American people will demand it,” she told an evangelical radio host Tuesday. “And I think before his second term is over, we’re going to see a miracle before our eyes, I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we’ll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare.”
She added, “I believe that’s going to happen and we saw step one last week with the repeal of Obamacare in the House. We have two more steps. We serve a mighty God and I believe it can happen.”
Didn’t he let it pass in the first place? r was that just to “teach us a lesson?” I really, really despise these people.
“Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.
This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love.”
Good for him, I wish him the best of luck to weather the coming backlash.
