Town of Greece's Prayer Practice Sparks Religious Bigotry

<p id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2224"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2223" style="color:#333333;">Local residents challenging the practice of the Greece Town Board just filed their <a href="https://au.org/files/pdf_documents/FINAL%20Br%20for%20Respondents.pdf">brief</a> with the United States Supreme Court.&nbsp; As the brief points out, most of the people who attend Board meetings have little choice but to be there, and they face substantial pressure to participate in the prayers once they are there.&nbsp; The prayers, meanwhile, have almost always been explicitly Christian.&nbsp; The plaintiffs argue that this pressure to participate in faith-specific prayers is detrimental to the religious consciences of religious minorities. </span></p><p id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2221"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2220" style="color:#333333;">Religious minorities face pressures not only to go along and get along at the meetings, but to remain quiet about any complaints. When one woman complained about the practice back in 2007, she received anti-Semitic hate mail.&nbsp; "What the Fuck is the matter with you Bitch.&nbsp; Stay the Hell out of our town, you Jew Bitch.&nbsp; Hitler should have exterminated all of you damn Jew problems, he must have missed your Jew Fucker parents," stated the letter.&nbsp; "Get a Life you divorced old whore!&nbsp; God, you are ugly bitch."&nbsp; It was signed "The Man."&nbsp; Rochester Indymedia recently received a copy of the <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99957">police report</a>, although the original complaint was filed with police in 2007.<strong><a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99957">&nbsp;</a></strong><strong><a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99957"> </a></strong>The name of the woman has been redacted to protect her identity.</span></p><p id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2215"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2214" style="color:#333333;">She was not the only one to receive hate mail. The two women who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit also received nasty letters.&nbsp; Those letters were also documented in <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99952">police reports</a>.&nbsp;<a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99954"> </a>One of the plaintiffs also suffered vandalism at her home. The blowback suffered by the plaintiffs here is not unusual in cases like this. Religion divides people, which is why it is so important for the government to remain as neutral as possible on religious matters.&nbsp; As the plaintiffs point out, a prayer to “God” is far more neutral than one to “Allah” or “Jesus.”</span></p><div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2195" style="border:none;border-bottom:dotted windowtext 3.0pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><p id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2194" style="border:none;padding:0in;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2193" style="color:#333333;">The case, Town of Greece v. Galloway will be argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on November 6, 2013.</span></p></div><p>&nbsp;</p>

<p id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2224">Local residents challenging the practice of the Greece Town Board just filed their <a href="https://au.org/files/pdf_documents/FINAL%20Br%20for%20Respondents.pdf">brief</a> with the United States Supreme Court.  As the brief points out, most of the people who attend Board meetings have little choice but to be there, and they face substantial pressure to participate in the prayers once they are there.  The prayers, meanwhile, have almost always been explicitly Christian.  The plaintiffs argue that this pressure to participate in faith-specific prayers is detrimental to the religious consciences of religious minorities. </p> <p id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2221">Religious minorities face pressures not only to go along and get along at the meetings, but to remain quiet about any complaints. When one woman complained about the practice back in 2007, she received anti-Semitic hate mail.  "What the Fuck is the matter with you Bitch.  Stay the Hell out of our town, you Jew Bitch.  Hitler should have exterminated all of you damn Jew problems, he must have missed your Jew Fucker parents," stated the letter.  "Get a Life you divorced old whore!  God, you are ugly bitch."  It was signed "The Man."  Rochester Indymedia recently received a copy of the <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99957">police report</a>, although the original complaint was filed with police in 2007.<strong><a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99957"> </a></strong><strong><a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99957"> </a></strong>The name of the woman has been redacted to protect her identity.</p> <p id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2215">She was not the only one to receive hate mail. The two women who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit also received nasty letters.  Those letters were also documented in <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99952">police reports</a>. <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/99954"> </a>One of the plaintiffs also suffered vandalism at her home. The blowback suffered by the plaintiffs here is not unusual in cases like this. Religion divides people, which is why it is so important for the government to remain as neutral as possible on religious matters.  As the plaintiffs point out, a prayer to “God” is far more neutral than one to “Allah” or “Jesus.”</p> <div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2195"> <p id="yui_3_7_2_1_1379541286294_2194">The case, Town of Greece v. Galloway will be argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on November 6, 2013.</p> </div> <p> </p>