Greece, NY: "Atheists, agnostics and assorted others -- screw off."

[Cyrano]

The following is from Rachel Maddow's blog. It concerns opening invocations at town hall meetings in Greece, NY, and shows one road down which the five crazies on the Supreme Court have taken us.

This week, ... officials in Greece (N.Y.) adopted a formal policy to put its prayer practices in place. Less than four months (after the high court ruling), the town of Greece has adopted an invocation policy that excludes non-religious citizens and potentially shuts out faiths that aren't well-established in the town, according to a top secular group.

Seeking to "avail itself of the Supreme Court's recognition" that government prayer is constitutional, the new policy restricts opening remarks to "assemblies with an established presence in the Town of Greece that regularly meet for the primary purpose of sharing a religious perspective."

In practice, this suggests non-believers -- who lack "established" meetings to discuss religious perspectives -- may be deliberately excluded. The same is true for minority faiths who lack enough local members for an established congregation.

http://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog

[3catwoman3]

1. This is my hometown. I no longer...

Last edited Sat Aug 30, 2014, 03:02 PM - Edit history (1)

...live there, and something like this would probably deter me from moving back.

I recently had the uncomfortable experience of seeing some Face Book posts from someone who was one of my closest friends from age 8 thru high school. She was ranting away about "Libtards," having no idea that I am one of those she was disparaging. My opinion of what she apparently believes would not be any more flattering, but I have the good manners to keep such comments in places like DU and out of the general social media. I have no need to be publicly offensive, dismissive or abrasive.

Our 45th high school reunion is taking place in mid-September. She still lives there, and will be in attendance. I am not going, as it is our younger son's last season of college soccer and we don't want to miss a single moment. I was feeling some regret about missing it, but not so much since seeing her post.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. kick