Virginia Senate kills church-state amendment.A proposed amendment to the Virginia Virginia, state, United States Virginia, state of the south-central United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), North Carolina and Tennessee (S), Kentucky and West Virginia (W), and Maryland and the District of Columbia (N and NE). Constitution to allow government-sanctioned prayer at public schools and other public places was defeated in the state Senate. In February, the House of Delegates House of Delegates n. The lower house of the state legislature in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. approved the proposal on a 69-27 vote. H.J. Res. 537 stated in part that the Virginia Constitution would "secure further the people's right to acknowledge God" and allow for prayer and other recognition of "religious beliefs, heritage and traditions on public property, including schools." The proposed amendment would revise the state constitution's Article I, Section 16, which was crafted by Thomas (language) Thomas - A language compatible with the language Dylan(TM). Thomas is NOT Dylan(TM). The first public release of a translator to Scheme by Matt Birkholz, Jim Miller, and Ron Weiss, written at Digital Equipment Corporation's Cambridge Research Laboratory runs Jefferson, James Madison and George Mason. But on Feb. 21, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted 10-5 to reject the measure after lengthy debate. Republican Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr., who pushed the proposed amendment in the House and testified on its behalf before the state senate committee, maintained that federal courts have muzzled Christians' free speech rights. "Our country was built upon the Christian principles of the Bible Bible [Gr.,=the books], term used since the 4th cent. to denote the Christian Scriptures and later, by extension, those of various religious traditions. This article discusses the nature of religious scripture generally and the Christian Scriptures specifically, as ," Carrico told the committee. "Today our constitution, in my opinion, has to be strengthened to protect those rights of all Christians around the nation." Democratic Sen. Janet D. Howell disagreed with Carrico, saying that the Christian majority is quite able to defend itself and that the Founding Fathers sought to protect minority faiths, the Richmond Times-Dispatch The Richmond Times-Dispatch (RTD or TD for short) is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond, Virginia the capital of Virginia, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state. reported. Not long after derailing that proposed amendment, however, the Virginia legislature did approve a bill intended to allow government officials to open their public meetings with sectarian sec·tar·i·an adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a sect. 2. Adhering or confined to the dogmatic limits of a sect or denomination; partisan. 3. Narrow-minded; parochial. n. 1. prayer. The measure, H 2615, sponsored by Republican Del. Robert D. Orrock Sr., would allow government bodies to open their sessions with "any expressions." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion