[Granny Bear]

It took a lot of courage for you to place this post, and I appreciate your honesty and your attempt to explain things from your viewpoint. However, for me anyway, you have missed the mark.

At the risk of alienation I will speak up for the non-believers. I am an atheist. The definition of such is that I don't not hold a belief in any single deity, there are those out there who equate Atheism to Satanic worship. This is incorrect as I do not believe in him either. I choose to be a good person because it is the right thing to do and not because I have a fear of eternal damnation or because things a book told me to.

This statement is ambiguous to me. It's the right thing to do, under whose scrutiny? Who do you hold in authority to say what is right and what is wrong?


Quick background for transparency sake. I was born and raised in a Christian family, I was baptized early in life in the Freewill Baptist church. I was baptized because I felt it was what I was supposed to do as a christian, from day 1 religion made no sense to me because I could not reconcile what I saw and experienced in the real world with what I was being told about the spiritual world. I left religion behind not because I was mad at god or the church or because I wanted to sin and not feel guilty about it. I left it because to me it made no sense to live in fear of damnation and hope of eternal life, spending every moment of this magical precious thing called life preparing for whats after it. I give this background because I want people to understand that my stance on this particular issue does not come from a position of hate or anger.

I'm not sure anyone can "reconcile" the daily life of the real world and the spiritual world. They are like apples and oranges. To me, this is where my faith comes to be. I absolutely believe you when you say that your issue doesn't come from hate or anger. I've NEVER seen that from you.


Now as for the public prayer to the christian creator and savior at the Bell Co games or any public event for that matter. My first statement is that a student led prayer is 100% OK with me. If a group of Christian students want to hold a prayer for anyone who wants to participate that is awesome. I would hope that Christians would be 100% OK with other religions doing the same thing. I am all for people freely practicing their religion as it is constitutionally protected for them to do so. However schools should not be hosting or leading a prayer to a single deity, even if the message is a positive one. UNLESS that same school is willing to do the same thing for other major religions as well.

We would have to be okay with it. It is the politically correct thing to do these days. In this case, the school didn't have anything to do with the prayer. Even the PA system was privately donated.


On this planet there are ~2 billion Christians, ~1.5 billion followers of Islam, ~1 Billion Hindus and ~1 billion Athiest/Agnostic/Undecided. That doesn't list the other dozen or so major religions on the planet. When Christian prayer is the sanctioned form of kicking off an event of any kind then people from all other walks of life tend to feel uncomfortable and complain. If Islamist where to all be given time to pray publicly over a sporting event then everyone but the Islamist would complain and the cycle continues no matter who is performing the religious practice, someone will always complain.

I agree. When I complained last year about an Islam based TV crew coming to video our game and pre-game prayer, I was pretty much ridiculed by most folks on this board.


I'm not offended by Christian prayer or any prayer for that matter and most people aren't. I am however uncomfortable during and slightly after. As I stand silently respecting your right to pray and I see all the others who are standing the same way awaiting the moment to pass I shouldn't have to worry about the guy who is praying that looks at me out of the corner of his eye and shakes his head or the lady who raises her head two or three times during the prayer to scan the crowd for who isn't praying to make the moment cringe worthy. I don't need someone to proselytize me after the event or during. I will be the last person in the world to tell you that you are wrong to believe in any religion but the religious will jump at the chance to tell me I am wrong or going to hell for not believing.


In my opinion, the judgmental Christian has done more to hurt our faith than Satan himself, but you can't judge the entire faith from one or two separate people. That's sort of what you are accusing Christians of doing....isn't it? Maybe I misunderstand you here. Please feel free to explain if you want.


It's not that we are attacking Christianity, though I know it feels that way. It's that way are asking for 100% inclusion and that all walks of life be considered.

Again thank you for posting this viewpoint. It's very important that everyone understand.