Banishing Christianity from the public square

February 20, 2008 by Gene Veith 12 Comments

A letter-writer to the “Washington Post” fulminates at the way NASCAR allowed the Daytona 500 to begin with a prayer. Not only a prayer, but one that “invoked Jesus Christ by name.” This, says the letter-writer, is another step in the effort to make Christianity into our nation’s official state religion. Read the letter. Notice what is happening. Yes, the government is not allowed to favor Christianity in schools, the military, and public events. But now that same standard is being applied to a private event that receives no federal money (why should NASCAR need to?). On a much larger scale, we have been seeing the God-free rules of the government applied in private companies, as in stores not allowing their employees to mention “Christmas” even in Christmas sales. This is phenomenon has not just religious implications but also political implications. People evidently see the government as so all-encompassing that government standards should be applied to EVERYTHING.

Filed Under: America, Christ, Sports 12 Comments

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About Gene Veith

Professor of Literature at Patrick Henry College, the Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary, a columnist for World Magazine and TableTalk, and the author of 18 books on different facets of Christianity & Culture.

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Joe
Mr. Geller is an idiot. I hate to be so rude but the complete and utter lack of any understanding about what it means for a religion to established by the federal gov’t is schocking.
Does he want congress to pass a law stoping NASCAR from having a prayer? Has he read the 1st Amendment?
Joe
Mr. Geller is an idiot. I hate to be so rude but the complete and utter lack of any understanding about what it means for a religion to established by the federal gov’t is schocking.
Does he want congress to pass a law stoping NASCAR from having a prayer? Has he read the 1st Amendment?
texan
I work for a large used bookstore chain. Its a great place to work and I have met a lot of great friends there. One co-worker, sweet lady, once complained that a customer’s mention of God to another employee might be a violation of the constitution’s requirement of separation of church and state!? I don’t think she is unique among my co-workers or other liberals I know. They don’t have a clue.
texan
I work for a large used bookstore chain. Its a great place to work and I have met a lot of great friends there. One co-worker, sweet lady, once complained that a customer’s mention of God to another employee might be a violation of the constitution’s requirement of separation of church and state!? I don’t think she is unique among my co-workers or other liberals I know. They don’t have a clue.
S Bauer
There are a lot of dunderheads around (see the post above about anti-intellectualism) or at least people who say some pretty stupid things. I’ve been known to do so upon occasion. One of my favorite corollaries of Murphy’s Law is “Nothing can be made foolproof because fools are so ingenious.” Instead of sputtering and foaming (I don’t mean to say that this post falls into that category) over the fools that exist, and thereby reinforcing the perception that Christians are reactionary and merely intent on retaining power over the culture, Christians should focus their energy on doing all we can to promote the type of educational values Dr. Veith has been highlighting in this series of posts.
S Bauer
There are a lot of dunderheads around (see the post above about anti-intellectualism) or at least people who say some pretty stupid things. I’ve been known to do so upon occasion. One of my favorite corollaries of Murphy’s Law is “Nothing can be made foolproof because fools are so ingenious.” Instead of sputtering and foaming (I don’t mean to say that this post falls into that category) over the fools that exist, and thereby reinforcing the perception that Christians are reactionary and merely intent on retaining power over the culture, Christians should focus their energy on doing all we can to promote the type of educational values Dr. Veith has been highlighting in this series of posts.