Prayer at URI

OK it is a tired headline: " Priest calls for prayer at URI

    graduation " ( Providence Journal, May 20 - page B1 ).

         Of course , Steve Brown of ACLU disagrees with the Rev.

    Joseph D. Creedon.

          Speaking as non-believer ( not quite an atheist ), I must

    say that I am getting more and more fed up with MILITANT atheists

    who have convulsions whenever God's name or Holy Scripture is

    invoked. Does this cranky minority have a " divine " right

    to stifle the religious instincts of the majority ?

          A society needs some moral glue to hold it together -

    even if it is just enchanting and inspiring STORIES.

        Perhaps what we need in this public prayer controversy is

    a LIBERAL interpretation of the constitutional separation of

    Church and State.

          Again and again I find myself in  a church for a wedding,

    a funeral ,or a baptism. Out of politeness I stand and kneel

    with the congregation. I am respectfully SILENT during prayers.

        As long as the pious sheep do not turn Inquisitorial on

    me, what do I care ? There is even a certain aesthetic beauty

    to the hymns and rituals.

         Just yesterday I attended a close friend's memorial mass.

    I had a very real - if not mystical feeling - that he had found

    peace at last.

          Fanatical atheism is as ridiculous and arrogant as fanatical

    religious faith.

         So - Let us pray !  Or at least, let THEM pray !