{"id":10520,"date":"2012-01-27T08:31:09","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T14:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=10520"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:34:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:34:41","slug":"the-catholic-turned-atheist-teen-whos-waging-a-war-on-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/01\/the-catholic-turned-atheist-teen-whos-waging-a-war-on-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Catholic-turned-atheist teen who’s waging a war on prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She\u2019s caused a firestorm of controversy and protest in Rhode Island. \u00a0Who is she?<\/p>\n

Details: <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

She is 16, the daughter of a firefighter and a nurse, a self-proclaimed nerd who loves\u00a0Harry Potter<\/a> and Facebook. But\u00a0Jessica Ahlquist<\/a> is also an outspoken\u00a0atheist<\/a> who has incensed this heavily Roman Catholic city with a successful lawsuit to get a prayer removed from the wall of her high school auditorium, where it has hung for 49 years.<\/p>\n

A federal judge ruled this month that the prayer\u2019s presence at Cranston High School West was unconstitutional, concluding that it violated the principle of government neutrality in religion. In the weeks since, residents have crowded school board meetings to demand an appeal, Jessica has received online threats and the police have escorted her at school, and Cranston, a dense city of 80,000 just south of Providence, has throbbed with raw emotion.<\/p>\n

State Representative Peter G. Palumbo, a Democrat from Cranston, called Jessica \u201can evil little thing\u201d on a popular talk radio show. Three separate florists refused to deliver her roses sent from a national atheist group. The group, theFreedom From Religion Foundation<\/a>, has filed a complaint with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was amazed,\u201d said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the foundation, which is based in Wisconsin and has given Jessica $13,000 from support and scholarship funds. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen a case like this in a long time, with this level of revilement and ostracism and stigmatizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prayer, eight feet tall, is papered onto the wall in the Cranston West auditorium, near the stage. It has hung there since 1963, when a seventh grader wrote it as a sort of moral guide and that year\u2019s graduating class presented it as a gift. It was a year after a landmark Supreme Court ruling barring organized prayer in public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Heavenly Father,\u201d the prayer begins, \u201cgrant us each day the desire to do our best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically, to be kind and helpful.\u201d It goes on for a few more lines before concluding with \u201cAmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jessica, who was baptized in the Catholic Church but said she stopped believing in God at age 10, the prayer was an affront. \u201cIt seemed like it was saying, every time I saw it, \u2018You don\u2019t belong here,\u2019\u00a0\u201d she said the other night during an interview at a Starbucks here.<\/p>\n

Since the ruling, the prayer has been covered with a tarp. The school board has indicated it will announce a decision on an appeal next month.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She\u2019s caused a firestorm of controversy and protest in Rhode Island. \u00a0Who is she? Details: She is 16, the daughter of a firefighter and a nurse, a self-proclaimed nerd who loves\u00a0Harry Potter and Facebook. But\u00a0Jessica Ahlquist is also an outspoken\u00a0atheist who has incensed this heavily Roman Catholic city with a successful lawsuit to get a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,40,45],"tags":[1032,729],"class_list":["post-10520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheists","category-prayer","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","tag-athesit","tag-rhode-island"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Catholic-turned-atheist teen who's waging a war on prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"She's caused a firestorm of controversy and protest in Rhode Island. \u00a0Who is she? 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