What Do You Think Of This Invocation?

The fact that none of them shouted a prayer during the silence probably counts as progress.

How low that bar is set!

As a Texan, I can say that Howard is fantastic. She recently won her re-election bid by a mere 12 votes, proving that she is politically courageous as well.

What is the relevance of making the comment about “packing heat”? Is Zamecki really that stupid to think a legislator will open fire on another just because of what she says?

tim,

No actually it was really meant to just educate those who aren’t aware of that fact. It was a big news issue a few months ago, and the conservative Christians in that legislature made a big deal about how they have to be allowed to work while armed. Or be armed while working…lol

I know it’s safe, it’s just eye-opening.

I liked that very much — gutsy lady. Would advocate handing out her script to every legislature nationwide including the US Congress.

You know what? That was excellent. She explained her role. She explained her purpose. She explained the legal qualifications for her action, and gave no sort of preference to any group or individual.

I don’t find a moment of silence to be a negative thing in any way. When I was in the Boy Scouts (ages ago) we had a very liberal (relatively speaking) scoutmaster, and opened meetings with a moment of silence that was treated exactly as the representative describes in this video. I found it an excellent way to guide the meeting into a relaxed (and thus productive) state. It was a sharp contrast to the meetings we had at the patrol level (BSA 101: Troops are comparable to a country, and Patrols are comparable to states) which were utterly chaotic because we never gave them any sort of structure. The moment of silence wasn’t the only thing that helped the troop meetings, but it sure helped end the chaos and chatter from gathering and introduce us to that structure.

Of course, we also didn’t have to have nearly two minutes of explanation first. We just opened with someone stating that the meeting was about to come to order and then asking “please join me in a moment of silence”.

Mrs Chili – if it’s not offensive to you, then I don’t think you need to have it explained as being offensive!

And though I’m NOT new to atheism, I don’t find it inappropriate either – it seems completely in the spirit of your 1st amendment rights and, having referred to and explained them briefly, I think demonstrating them immediately afterwards is a great thing!

At my father’s humanist funeral, there was a moment of silence, during which some people almost certainly prayed. I didn’t care, and neither did any of the non-religious people there. It’s the FORCING of religiosity onto others which is wrong, not the fact that some people are religious.

(Well, basically … I’d still prefer they WEREN’T religious, but you can’t have everything!)

Thanks, Adam. I thought maybe I was missing something…

yeah, seriously Hemant, what’s your problem with a moment of silence?

That’s Donna Howard, and she’s part of my local church – First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin (austinuu.org). Given our proximity to the university (UT), we have quite a few folks who are atheist or agnostic.

CFI frequently has materials and reps present at various events, and the Secular Coalition for America has used our facility and may host training for starting a Texas division here.

@Mrs. Chili –

“Moments of silence” CAN be offensive because often, “moment of silence” is a code word for “the speaker will lead the room in prayer, but call it a moment of silence so we don’t get sued.”

When a moment of silence really is what it says on the tin – a moment of silence, with all attendees free to use it as they see fit, maybe with their own prayer or maybe not – that’s great! It’s just that there’ve been plenty of instances of people renaming “and now we’ll have a prayer” to “now we’ll have a moment of silence” with few or no other changes to the ceremony to go along with it, which is why “moment of silence” sometimes gets somewhat of a reaction from atheists.

This one seemed fine though.

@Mrs Chili,

Some atheists tend to have problems with moments of silence not only because, lke the other commentors have said, people often use it to pray out loud anyway (a legal problem) or act dismissive toward anyone who’s not folding their hadns and bowing their heads (a problem, but not a legal problem), but also because most of the legislature for a moment of silence oversteps its bounds.

The grand majority of “moment of silence” bills specify a moment of silence for prayer, or even this moment (the most inclusive one I’ve ever heard and i love the representative for doing it!) say it’s a moment of silence for prayer or meditation or reflection or whatever silent activity when the specification for prayer is completely unnecessary and, quite frankly, gives the unnecessary appearance that the government is endorsing prayer. It would be just as easy to have a “moment of silence for whatever silent activity you would like to partake.”

Many Arizona leglislators pack heat and are batshit crazy. I wouldn’t put it past them to open fire on someone who wasn’t being Jesus-y enough.

I’ve met Donna Howard, and yes, she’s that cool in person. I’m sending this thread to a friend of mine who can forward it to her.