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In UK, theocracy on the march

Where would England be without the National Secular Society bravely standing athwart history’s tracks yelling “Stop!” to the onrushing locomotive of Christian theocracy? Excerpt: The long tradition of prayers being said before local council meetings is to be challenged at the high court on Friday. The National Secular Society (NSS) says the ritual is inappropriate […]

Where would England be without the National Secular Society bravely standing athwart history’s tracks yelling “Stop!” to the onrushing locomotive of Christian theocracy? Excerpt:

The long tradition of prayers being said before local council meetings is to be challenged at the high court on Friday.

The National Secular Society (NSS) says the ritual is inappropriate in what should be “a secular environment concerned with civic business”. NSS president Terry Sanderson said the practice was leading to a worrying “potential for conflict”.

A survey of local authorities found most include prayers as part of the council meeting agenda.

In what could serve as a test case, the NSS is taking Bideford town council in Devon to the court, acting on a complaint from councillor Clive Bone, a non-believer who says he is “disadvantaged and embarrassed” when Christian prayers are said.

What is tradition in the face of Clive Bone’s embarrassment? God Null forbid that Clive Bone should ever be made to feel uncomfortable about anything, ever. Anyway, as Niall, who sent this from London, remarks:

What I love in this story is how the guy says the prayers have “worrying potential for conflict”. Erm, they didn’t until you picked a fight about it. I don’t think prayers before council meetings have ever caused any conflict in Britain until the touchy, intolerant, passive-aggressive atheist movement got into full swing. It’s like a mugger complaining that his victim’s iPad has a worrying potential for conflict.

More National Secular Society freaking out here, endorsing a local politician’s call for the Boy Scouts to drop the God stuff and to quit meeting in churches so as not to upset “Asian” (read: Muslim) kids, who supposedly won’t go there because they find the meeting places offensive. A Muslim politician says Asians have their own groups, and are happy with them. Why, exactly, is this a problem for anybody? It’s not, except for the Puritanical busybodies at the National Secular Society, who are so thin-skinned it’s a wonder their guts don’t fall out onto the sidewalk every time they bump into something.

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