Quit whining - it's only a prayer.

Published on 01/28/2002 Daily Egyptian (SIUC)

We have a new puppy in the house; we call her Nemesis. That's how our aging cocker spaniel views her - as an annoying interloper. Nemesis (Nemy for short) is all puppy. Needle-like teeth, boundless energy, quiet only when she's sleeping. Even then she whines, sometimes.

She whines a lot, usually to get what she wants. It's her right as a puppy, and as an American.

I read an article in Time magazine a few years ago that called us a nation of whiners. It was true then, and it's still true today.

The latest round of whining centers around Michael Perry's ill-advised prayer at the commencement ceremonies in December. Such things are considered seriously gauche in these times, and you think Mike would have known better.

Actually, as a veteran, Mike probably doesn't know any better. The separation of church and state doesn't appear to extend to the federal government, especially the military.

The whole time I was in the Navy every one of our official ceremonies either opened or closed with a prayer. Sometimes both. No skipper would have considered accepting charge of a squadron or a ship without a chaplain offering a few words at the change of command. My own retirement ceremony had a chaplain in attendance to offer a blessing to my post-Navy life. I'm not all that religious, but a little extra help never hurts. Every night aboard U.S. Navy ships, at 2150 (9:50 p.m. for the uninitiated) a chaplain gets on the public address system for the evening prayer. The chaplain offers some little homily or anecdote, followed by a brief prayer. His words are carried throughout the entire ship. Those that wished to listened to the prayer, or bowed their heads and prayed with the chaplain. Those who were not interested continued playing poker, reading, or whatever they were doing. No one's hair fell out, no one had his or her eyes permanently crossed. The worst that happened was a short interruption to the evening movie (they put it on pause during the evening prayer.)

In all the formations I stood in where a prayer was offered, I'm sure there were atheists, Moslems, Jews and probably a few Pagans. All that was required was a couple of moments of respectful silence. Frankly, I'm not even sure I listened to the prayer at my own retirement.

The whole separation of church and state has been blown out of proportion. Our founding fathers came here from England for a multitude of reasons. One reason was to escape the requirement of membership in the Church of England. That was the only religious choice open to them. Not unlike Afghanistan under the Taliban regime - where only their brand of Islam was recognized or allowed.

In setting up the Bill of Rights, the framers of the Constitution put religious freedom high on the list. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." This means there is no "official" U.S. religion. It doesn't mean religion has to be driven underground.

Lemon vs. Kurtzman, the Supreme Court case usually cited when confronting the evils of school prayer, actually had nothing to do with school prayer. The case arose from statutes in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania that provided public assistance to private schools, including religious school. The case was decided against the states, and the funding ceased. Since then, the case has been used as a club to beat down anything that remotely smacked of religion in a public school.

I doubt Mike thought he could convert the graduates or their families to his brand of religion. I'm sure he added what he thought was a nice and natural part of any well-planned ceremony. It was a feature he was undoubtedly used to seeing at many official government ceremonies.

So for all you whiners out there - get over it, let it go. I doubt it crossed anyone eyes or caused significant hair loss. Plug your ears and quit looking for a reason to be offended.

Oh, and for Mike and all his supporters: before you elect me man of hour; I hope you learned something from this experience. This isn't the military, this is college. Call this a lesson learned and do your praying in private. People will be offended, will take it wrong, and given current public opinion, prayer has no place at graduation exercises.