{"id":19808,"date":"2021-05-28T14:55:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T21:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/?p=19808"},"modified":"2021-05-28T14:13:54","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T21:13:54","slug":"judge-sides-with-atheist-group-strikes-down-pre-court-prayer-as-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/judge-sides-with-atheist-group-strikes-down-pre-court-prayer-as-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Sides with Atheist Group, Strikes Down Pre-Court Prayer as Unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Michael Foust – May 24, 2021<\/p>\n

A Texas judge\u2019s practice of opening his court sessions in chaplain-led prayer violates the U.S. Constitution\u2019s prohibition on government establishment of religion, a federal district court ruled Friday.<\/p>\n

Judge Wayne Mack, a justice of the peace in Montgomery County, Texas, created a chaplaincy program in 2014 allowing volunteer chaplains to \u201cassist the Court system and Law Enforcement with grieving families on tragic death scenes or death call notifications.\u201d Chaplains also were allowed to offer an invocation for Mack\u2019s court sessions.<\/p>\n

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which calls itself an organization of \u201catheists, agnostics and skeptics of any pedigree,\u201d sued Mack in federal court, arguing that the prayers were unconstitutional. FFRF represented an attorney who is a member of the organization and who frequently argued cases in Mack\u2019s courtroom.<\/p>\n

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt issued a 15-page decision<\/a> siding with the atheist organization. Hoyt was nominated by President Reagan. Mack\u2019s attorneys say they will appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court is of the view that the defendant violates the Establishment Clause when, before a captured audience of litigants and their counsel, he presents himself as theopneustically-inspired, enabling him to advance, through the Chaplaincy Program, God\u2019s \u2018larger purpose,\u201d Hoyt wrote. \u201cSuch a magnanimous goal flies in the face of historical tradition and makes a mockery of both religion and law.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 90 percent of the chaplains between November 2017 and October 2020 were Protestant Christians, although the chaplains list also included representatives of Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism, Hoyt said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.christianheadlines.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Foust – May 24, 2021 A Texas judge\u2019s practice of opening his court sessions in chaplain-led prayer violates the U.S. Constitution\u2019s prohibition on government establishment of religion, a federal district court ruled Friday. Judge Wayne Mack, a justice of the peace in Montgomery County, Texas, created a chaplaincy program in 2014 allowing volunteer chaplains … Continue reading Judge Sides with Atheist Group, Strikes Down Pre-Court Prayer as Unconstitutional<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[521,175,177,6770,15843,6880,496,513],"class_list":["post-19808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-warning","tag-atheists","tag-christianity","tag-christians","tag-establishment-clause","tag-judge-kenneth-m-hoyt","tag-judge-wayne-mack","tag-texas","tag-u-s-constitution"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fAkI-59u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19810,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19808\/revisions\/19810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}