Thursday, June 19, 2008

Group Asks Wisconsin Legislature To End Opening Prayers

According to yesterday's Green Bay Press Gazette, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has asked Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch to end the long-standing practice of opening sessions with prayers. Under current practice, members of the Assembly sign up to either personally lead a prayer or have a constituent do so. FFRF said its review of 16 prayers offered by legislators in the past year found that all but one were overtly Christian, and some were critical of other religions. For example, in one case, Rep. Eugene Hahn prayed: "Those who don’t love us, may God turn their hearts. And, if he doesn’t turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so we’ll know them by their limping."