Prayer at the inauguration...maybe not?

WSJ OpinionJournal - Taste:

"Next Thursday, George W. Bush's inauguration will include a religious invocation . . .unless Michael Newdow has his way. Mr. Newdow, the atheist lawyer who last year failed to persuade the Supreme Court to eliminate the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance, has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove all prayer and 'Christian religious acts' from the Jan. 20 inauguration."

Mr. Newdow claims that a prayer or religious invocation at the President's inauguration (a practice that dates back to the first inauguration as the article points out) is a violation of the First Ammendment's separation clause and:

"He claims that an inauguration that includes prayers by religious ministers would turn nonbelievers "into second-class citizens and create division on the basis of religion."

I'm sorry. There are any number of things that could and can be done or said that would alienate me from others who believe in what they happen to believe in. Every day there are news stories, movies, television programs, radio shows, and comments or demonstrations by people in the streets that can offend someone and make them feel like an outsider.

The bigger question I have is, other than feeling like an outsider or "second-class" citizen, what impact does the act of a religious invocation or prayer have on Mr. Newdow's personal life? Does it prevent him from making a living? Does it prevent him from having food and shelter? Does it limit his own personal freedoms of expression?

This may be harsh, but I don't care about his personal feelings. His argument that, because it's the government expressing this belief, doesn't hold any water with me. The government is not mandating or enforcing any religious practice (which is what the First Ammendment was designed to prevent). You can hear the invocation as an atheist, agnostic, pagan, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc and still know, that in the United States, you can practice what you believe.

This government is "for the people, by the people" meaning that we are all part of the government - whether we like it or not. Each of us expresses our opinions regularly and each of us are exposed to others opinions regularly. We don't always agree, and never will. (see earlier post) But we move on in our lives and get over it because in the end, it's not what someone else's belief does to you, it's what your belief does to yourself.