Department of Veterans Affairs bans the use of God or Jesus during funeral prayers

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DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
The CNN blog says "pastor's invocation at a Memorial Day ceremony." that is a ceremony for all veterans, not the funeral for a specific veteran.

That makes a huge difference.

Any atheists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans and Satanists who fought and died for their country might not want to have some pastor blessing them in Jesus' name and claiming that Jesus is their lord and savior.

The families of those fallen soldiers who believe their son or daughter now feasts with Odin in Valhalla shouldn't have to listen to someone talking about Jesus.

If it's a funeral for a specific veteran then of course the prayers for them in particular could say anything related to their faith, including "Hail Satan!"
 
DominionSeraph

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
8,386
32
91
OutHouse said:
no its not only natural you twit! the vet earned those benefits, what is said at his or her memorial is none of the governments business.
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It is when it is the government doing the speaking.
You are reading into this that FAMILY INVITED guests are being censored. NOWHERE does it say this. So take your religious persecution complex and shove it.

Fucking Fundies, always up in arms over fabrications of their own minds.
You people CANNOT think, so stop trying to.

If they were family invited they would not be "VA volunteers."
They are taking the place of the government, NOT acting on their own accord, so the government has a say. If they cannot conduct themselves in a nondenominational way then the VA has no business using their services, as they cannot assure equal treatment.
Burial benefits are for ALL vets who meet the requirements, not just the Christian ones. Setting up that all military burials are Christian affairs rather makes them unappealing to non-Christians, and it is not the government's place to discriminate against them.
 
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Cogman

Cogman

Lifer
Sep 19, 2000
10,286
147
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DaveSimmons said:
The CNN blog says "pastor's invocation at a Memorial Day ceremony." that is a ceremony for all veterans, not the funeral for a specific veteran.

That makes a huge difference.

Any atheists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans and Satanists who fought and died for their country might not want to have some pastor blessing them in Jesus' name and claiming that Jesus is their lord and savior.

The families of those fallen soldiers who believe their son or daughter now feasts with Odin in Valhalla shouldn't have to listen to someone talking about Jesus.

If it's a funeral for a specific veteran then of course the prayers for them in particular could say anything related to their faith, including "Hail Satan!"
Click to expand...
Yeah, the whole issue was brought up from the memorial day incident. From the Fox news article does mention that, though the people that are complaining seem to infer that it happens elsewhere.

That being said, the VA still has to be retarded to think that they can get a pastor to SAY A PRAYER and then in the prayer, not mention deity at all. I mean, come on, you are getting a religious person to perform a religious ceremony and then you get offended when he mentions anything to do with religion?

If the very word god offends you, why on earth would you have someone say a prayer?
 
T

the DRIZZLE

Platinum Member
Sep 6, 2007
2,956
1
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BeauJangles said:
I thought the Constitution was written to prevent the establishment of an official religion or the persecution of a specific religion. How does a prayer at a funeral fall under either of those auspices?
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This. I don't understand where this insane interpretation of the separation of church and state comes from. It's certainly not required by the constitution.
 
BeauJangles

BeauJangles

Lifer
Aug 26, 2001
13,941
1
0
OutHouse said:
freedom of speech?

how in the fuck do you even think that a prayer at a funeral goes against the constitution??? are you really that dumb? the dipshit in Houston just trampled all over the rights of the vet and his family by LIMITING their speech. that goes against everything the Constitution is all about.
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Uhhh, I'm agreeing with you.

Re-written, my question is, "how does a prayer at a funeral establish an official religion or how does it single out a specific religion for special treatment / persecution?" Answer: It doesn't, therefore this rule is complete BS.


the DRIZZLE said:
This. I don't understand where this insane interpretation of the separation of church and state comes from. It's certainly not required by the constitution.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I don't give two hoots about religion myself, but that doesn't mean that a Christian soldier can't have a Christian funeral, that Muslim soldier can't have a Muslim funeral, that a Jewish soldier can't have a Jewish funeral... etc, etc.

The separation of church and state wasn't supposed to create the fervently agnostic / atheistic government we have today, it was supposed to be an invitation to people of all creeds to come and believe what they believe and worship who they worship in this country without fear of prosecution or persecution.

Now, we're all too afraid of "establishing an official religion" that we panic when someone says anything religious anywhere.
 
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Newbian

Newbian

Lifer
Aug 24, 2008
24,779
882
126
Well the religious people get all upset when the government tries to step in for instance when they try to get gay marriage legalized and hide behind the "separation of church and state".

Is it something stupid, yes, but honestly they are doing just as much to them as the church does to the government at times so I guess they don't like it when it bites them on the ass. :p
 
Newbian

Newbian

Lifer
Aug 24, 2008
24,779
882
126
The thing that bothers me is the church always complains about government overstepping the line between "church and state" yet how can they defend when they spend millions of dollars to get laws passed or to prevent them from being passed?

I agree that there is a lot of stupid stuff such as forcing employees to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" but why raise such a stink over it and yet the news feels free to ignore it when the church steps beyond their power and tries to control government actions.
 
P

piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
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Oh Supreme Omnipotent Spiritual being ....
May all government officials be burned in hell-fire for an eternity of torment . . . .
in the name of your son, the eternal Carpenter of Repentence Amen?
 
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