Thread: legal action over prayers

This councillor seems to have a track record of militant secularism.

Originally Posted by Westmorland Gazette

Enda Farrell, who represents the Far Cross ward, argued that having a Christian prayer in the meeting room before proceedings could make some people feel excluded. He called for prayers to be scrapped or to be held in a different room, stressing that it was a matter of equality.

Human rights row over town council prayer session (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Criticising Christian people who objected to Halloween -

Originally Posted by National Secular Society

I have been reliably informed that in a village near where I live in Cumbria, a proposed Halloween Disco was cancelled in the local C of E school. This is allegedly because two evangelical christian families objected to what they considered to be a ‘pagan festival ceremony’ being held there.

And then again, objecting to the school nativity play ---

So there I am, reading the titles of each class performance that my children can ‘opt in’ to or ‘opt out’ of: “Year 2 class performance, ‘****-a-doodle-christmas’ where the children will dress up as animals and re-tell the nativity story from the animals’ point of view’...

My seven year old son does not want to take part in his class nativity play. His teacher told me that as a christian she could not alter her planned ‘****-a-doodle-christmas’ play, so in the end I agreed to take him home every Tuesday at 1.15pm.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/****-a-...christmas.html

Just reading the previous post and noting the number and placement of asterisks I do wonder how the profanity filter would cope with Scunthorpe if it was mentioned, let alone the small Germany town of Wank situated twixt Nesselwang and Fussen?

Mousehole is probably OK but Cockermouth in Cumbria will almost certainly die in a flurry of stars.

On a serious note, is a profanity filter really any use?

Those who abuse the absence would only be showing themselves up for what they are, those who read the odd F or Blind are hardly likely to be mortified and take off in a fit of the vapours.

Eddited to add

Oh! It didn't! How 'bout that!

Still the question of the use of a rude word filter remains.

A copy of a WW2 newspaper from 1942 recently came into my possession, and in one of these the Army Officer commanding the Garrison at Malta was saying that prayers saved the island. The contrast between that and the report on this thread seems very stark.

Interestingly, if you put the word 'Prayers' into the search facility of the Westmorland Gazette, this is what you get: ---

A Muslim doctor who was dismissed from her job claims she was discriminated against on religious grounds because she wanted to attend a mosque for prayers every Friday, a tribunal heard.

GP claims she was stopped from going to prayers (From The Westmorland Gazette)

There is more though ---

HUNDREDS of Muslims gathered in Corporation Park, Blackburn, for Eid prayers yesterday. More than 500 worshippers gathered to pray together and listen to a sermon by scholar Sheik Khalid Yasin .....

A similar event was due to be held at Eid after Ramadan in October but Blackburn with Darwen Council pulled the plug on health and safety grounds. Organisers had then opted to hold the event in a local community centre but the turnout was very low.

Muslims gather for Eid prayers at Blackburn park (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Not very long ago Church events were widely supported as part of our public life. There is a Church service for the Mayor Making in Lancaster, in Lancaster Priory every year. 'Walking Day' used to be held in many towns in the North West, at Whitsuntide or at other times, but in some places this was suppressed when the police demanded huge sums of money from the Churches to stop the traffic.

A recent article in the Barnabas Fund newsletter reported on the 'Organisation of the Islamic Conference' (OIC), a group which is trying to get the United Nations to introduce anti-religious hatred laws in order to suppress freedom of speech and to prevent the criticism of Islam. (newsletter July - August 2009)

I wonder if something simiilar is going on with regard to Secularism? The suppression of prayers in Kendal is one example of old traditions being swept aside, to the detriment of the character and uniqueness of English society. Yet another example of Political Correctness Gone Mad. But the question needs to be asked, what is the character of the society which the Secularists like Enda Farrell wish to put in its place?

Originally Posted by Stephen Booth

A copy of a WW2 newspaper from 1942 recently came into my possession, and in one of these the Army Officer commanding the Garrison at Malta was saying that prayers saved the island. The contrast between that and the report on this thread seems very stark.

I met an elderly chap outside a church in Malta, and he told me that about that sort of time when Malta was getting bombed worse than Dresden there was a service in a local church. There was this bomb that came through the roof and landed on the floor but refused to go off. No one was hurt. So from a personal account of that happening I guess he was probably right.

HAHAHA!

You've got to love the doublethink on here, man, Orwell would be proud.

"Wah, secularists don't want us praying!"

"Wah, the muslims are praying! I wish they'd stop them!"

You could bust a gut watching this. You guys worship the same insane middle eastern god that puts obedience ahead of human life, the same god that murders the world in the opening books, the same god that condemns people to torture in the afterlife for thought crimes. Yet all you do is complain about you not getting preferential treatment. Christian supremacism has thankfully died a death, get used to it, you're no better than anyone else, and the "appeal to tradition" is a fallacy.

More people in Britain think the world would be better off without religion than go to church regularly. Your hypocrisy is hilarious.