The separation of church and state has been misconstrued by the courts and government to deliberatly remove God from the public forum. Virginians now have a chance to fight back.
State Senator Bill Stanley has proposed an amendment to the Virginia Constitution to clarify that the right to worship includes prayer in public settings, including property and public schools.
“We have to return prayer to the public forum, it’s long overdue,” Stanley said. “I have been watching the assault on people’s right to pray where they see fit and the assault on religion by the government in order to remove any higher authority than itself from the public view.”
The proposed amendment SJ 287 would add language to the freedom of religion that “the Commonwealth shall not coerce any person to participate in any prayer or religious activity, but shall ensure that any person shall have the right to pray individually or corporately in a private or public setting so long a s such prayers abide within the same parameters placed upon any free speech under similar circumstances.”
“The ACLU and other secular groups are attacking small communities, intimidating and threatening them with lawsuits to prevent the people from exercising their right to express their faith,” Stanley said. “They are trying to overrule the will of many with the will of one. This silliness has to stop.”
This amendment has been referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections. Their next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, January 22, 2013, at 4 p.m. Please, at your earliest convenience, email and/or call the Committee members to let them know that we support Senator Stanley’s committment to put God back in his rightful place in Virginia.
Email each member at district(#)@senate.virginia.gov. (Ex: for Obenshain district26@senate.virginia.gov). The phone numbers for each Committee member begins with 804-698, the last 4 digits for each is listed below.
- District 26 Republican Senator Mark Obenshain, phone 698-7526
- 32 Democratic Senator Janet Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . 7532
- 11 Republican Senator Steve Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7511
- 25 Democratic Senator Creigh Deeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7525
- 38 Democratic Senator Phil Puckett. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7538
- 21 Democratic Senator John Edwards. . . . . . . . . . . . 7521
- 09 Democratic Senator Don McEachin . . . . . . . . . . . 7509
- 34 Democratic Senator Chapman Petersen . . . . . . . . . 7534
- 19 Republican Senator Ralph Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7519
- 06 Democratic Senator Ralph Northam . . . . . . . . . . . 7506
- 27 Republican Senator Jill Vogel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7527
- 08 Republican Senator Jeff McWaters . . . . . . . . . . . . 7508
- 40 Republican Senator Charles Carrico. . . . . . . . . . . . 7540
- 17 Republican Senator Bryce Reeves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7517
- 22 Republican Senator Tom Garrett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7522
A Constitutional amendment must be passed twice by the General Assembly before it can be placed on the ballot for Virignia voters. This is an extremely important issue – please contact the Committee above and ask them to put this on the floor for a vote.
