Dear Mr. Taylor,
Thank you for your courage and willingness to voice your view in The Collegian on the topic of public prayer.
I am thankful that we live in a country where a person is able to express his or her opinion freely but have seen an escalating encroachment on that right over the last two decades.
A public institution has a responsibility to be all-inclusive and should honor and respect every human being who comes through its doors.
There needs to be a keen sensitivity to the myriad of attitudes, values and cultures represented. The law must be obeyed, including those laws which sometimes prohibit public prayer.
While it appears that you have no objection to people praying privately, far too often people build arguments like yours when in truth what they are really saying is that they want to rid the earth of any trace or recollection of faith in a Supreme Being.
Why is it that when a football player is seriously injured that the first response is almost always for people to pray?
Why is it that immediately after the tragedy at Columbine High School, the first response was for people to pray?
I have never heard a word of criticism about these kinds of prayers. The answer to both questions is that prayer helps people deal with their problems.
There is scientific research that shows people who are the objects of prayer during illness get well sooner than those who receive no prayer.
Lighten up a little, Chris. Be as tolerant of others as you would expect them to be of you. It’s the right thing to do.
Sincerely,
Cordell Parker
Dear Editor,
Ignorance is alive and well at the TCC Collegian.
I am referring to the viewpoints article by managing editor Chris Taylor, who regrettably was “held hostage” by a vicious group of people praying mid-field during a local football game.
How terrible that it wasn’t a school shooting, right, Chris?
An interesting note: his article was just above the article decrying homosexual discrimination; apparently Christians should enjoy no such protection, for the risk of offending one person out of a presumed crowd of several hundred is too great.
While we’re at it Chris, since your article offended me, then by your own definition, you “oppressed” me. Of course, I couldn’t have just stopped reading the article if it offended me; I was forced to read it to its conclusion. Just like you were unable to leave the football game, but were compelled to sit there, “held hostage” as you were, and watch the whole disgusting display of a football team in prayer.
It is laughable that he suggested such a display might be in violation of the “Supreme Court ruling on school prayer” since the ruling pertained to school-led prayer.
Contrary to what many would believe, the day that prayer is banned outright from schools (which is not outside the realm of possibility) is the day America slits her wrists, for religion is the lifeblood of this country.
Remove prayer, and remove with it freedom of speech and the written word.
God forbid, for then we wouldn’t have access to such enlightened pieces of journalism like yours.
Todd Willis