As part of a series entitled Words from Our Presidents we are bringing you different from quotes from U.S. Presidents on religion, religious liberty, and individual freedom. Today we have a 1992 quote from President George H. W. Bush on voluntary prayer in public schools.
“Something’s wrong when kids can get birth control in school but can’t say a prayer in school.”
President George H. W. Bush
August 22, 1992
Recently we told you about a training session in which U.S. Army personnel were told the American Family Association is a “domestic hate group.”
The AFA, a Christian ministry well known for its American Family Radio, was likened to the Ku Klux Klan, Black Panthers, and other groups. Similar incidents have happened across the country in what has become a very troubling trend.
Yesterday, however, the Pentagon announced it is putting a stop to these briefings. The training seminars in which these incidents have occurred will resume in November, but under a new directive that states in part,
Emphasize that neither [the Department of Defense] nor the Army maintain or publish any centralized list of specific organizations considered to be extremist in nature or in opposition to the Army’s core values….use [the] chain of command to answer questions and resolve issues.
This is a welcomed change for many who have been concerned about statements made against evangelical Christians by trainers at Camp Shelby, Fort Hood, and elsewhere in recent months.
You can download a copy of the new directive here.
You can read the American Family Association’s response to the new directive here.
As part of a series entitled Words from Our Presidents we are bringing you different from quotes from U.S. Presidents on religious liberty and individual freedom. Today we have a quote from President Reagan’s 1984 address at the Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast in Texas.
“We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief. All are free to believe or not believe; all are free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions.”
President Ronald Reagan
August 23, 1984