Check this out. At yesterday morning's Congressional Prayer Service Tom Delay read a little from Matthew 7 and evidently emphasized the following verses:

[quote]24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.[/quote]

Now I'm not suggesting that Delay would be so mean-spirited as to send a shot across the bow to the victims of the tsunami, but how stupid does he have to be to bring out that particular passage at this point in history? Surely there was some other language that could have been used at the service -- I just can't fathom that sort of insensitivity.

Is this same passage read at every Congressional Prayer Service? Someone please tell me that it is...

no, most catholic churches follow a schedule of scripture(i used to be an alter boy in elementary school, and no i wasn't touched :roll: ), it very well could have been a coincidence or an overlooked thingy. but if it was intentionally picked it is pretty bad. i would have gone with some old testement stuff about noah after the floods and the the surviving the floods.

The real question here should be why do we have a [i]Congressional Prayer Service[/i] in the first place? I read some time ago that theres even a Senate Chaplin who's salary is 100K+ a year. Good to see seperation of church and state works so well. :?

[quote=neoee]The real question here should be why do we have a [i]Congressional Prayer Service[/i] in the first place? I read some time ago that theres even a Senate Chaplin who's salary is 100K+ a year. Good to see seperation of church and state works so well. :?[/quote]

Good luck trying to separate Church and state. Biblical stuff is printed all over buildings in Washington, plus our currency, etc.

Yeah I know. I can live with religious statements on our currency, but in this instance we're using tax dollars to pay for a job that should clearly not exist.

uhh i think we have those in the military as well...

this country is founded on christian protestant ethics and principles and there ain't much ya can do bout it!

i cried and cried, but figured it's not worth it any more. i just ignore all the religious crap. i can't wait till i have to go to court and swear on the bible. i could lie my ass off and claim that my oath was invalid as the book upon which i swore meant nothing to me. think that would work?

[quote=face]i can't wait till i have to go to court and swear on the bible. i could lie my ass off and claim that my oath was invalid as the book upon which i swore meant nothing to me. think that would work?[/quote]

Nope. There is no requirement that you swear on a Bible -- it is a matter of convention only, and people can and do choose not to use the Bible and/or to "affirm" rather than swear all the time. Whether you gets busted for perjury for lying is a matter between you and the court -- whether you believe that swearing on a Bible or not has any significance is up to you.

haha yeah i know. i was only kidding.

actually native americans are provided some sort of sacred/traditional belt upon which they must swear in court, instead of a bible.