Give thanks to God for reason and common sense winning the day in this most unfortunate waste of time for our court system.

“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” (Eph 4:18 ESV)

View Comments (0)

Last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the House did not have to allow an atheist to deliver the opening prayer as a guest chaplain. Of note from the opinion, the court held that “Despite Mr. Barker’s repeated attempts to characterize his claims as not challenging the constitutionality of legislative prayer, the reality is that his request to open the House with a secular invocation, which resulted in the denial of his request to serve as a guest chaplain, was a challenge to the ability of Congress to open with a prayer. To decide that Mr. Barker was discriminated against and should be permitted to address the House would be to disregard the Supreme Court precedent that permits legislative prayer. Marsh definitively found that legislative prayer does not violate the Establishment Clause. This Court concludes that the refusal of the House Chaplain to invite an avowed atheist to deliver the morning “prayer,” in the guise of a non-religious public exhortation as a “guest chaplain,” did not violate the Establishment Clause.” (Update from Senator Lankford’s office and the Congressional Prayer Caucus.)