Public Prayers

I usually reserve my religious rant for Christmas but it's coming a little earlier this year. I received an e-mail about how Christian prayers normally said in American schools and at sporting events are being frowned upon by certain factions who seem to frown upon everything we hold sacred...even an agnostic like me wants to hold our traditions sacred.

I look at it this way. If I'm with a group who prays before a meal or an event, I respect them by keeping quiet and saying a silent thank you to whatever powers that be for putting me in such nice company. It doesn't matter whether the group is Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or any other religion, I would show respect.

When a friend sends me an e-mail saying they are praying for me in my time of need, I take that as a supreme compliment because they are showing how much they care about me.

I don't know but maybe different religions can't respect each other and that's the problem. I've heard horror stories about how some religions look upon followers of other religions as unfit to live and I wonder if their god teaches them to hate like that. Being an agnostic, I am suspicious of all faiths because I've never been able to accept that a being with dominion over us all would allow a child to be tortured or murdered. I can't just "have faith". But I have respect for those who do.

I think it's disrespectful for anyone to come to this country and demand that public Christian prayers be stopped. I think it's disrespectful for a tiny minority to demand we stop erecting Christmas trees on public property in December. And worst of all, I think it's insanity for Canadians or Americans to burn down a mosque in anger. We either need to accept each other or everyone needs to go back to their country of origin and never leave.

Me, I'm part Irish, part English, part French, and maybe a little Jewish so I'm not sure where I could go.