WhiskeyPapa
10-14-2002, 10:16 AM
Linky (http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20021014/4531562s.htm)
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- President Bush talks openly and proudly about his active spiritual faith. In another, less well known sign of the religious devotion that permeates the administration, some White House staffers have been meeting weekly at hour-long prayer and Bible study sessions.
Bush aides organized the sessions before his inauguration. One group meets during the lunch hour on Tuesdays, another on Thursdays. Attendance is voluntary and, although the lessons are Christian in nature, non-Christians are welcome.
Typically, 25 to 50 of the 1,700 people who work in the White House complex -- department heads, secretaries and mail clerks --attend each session. They meet in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, an ornate building next to the White House that houses the offices of Vice President Cheney and other administration officials.
Federal workplace guidelines issued in 1997 permit religious activities but warn supervisors to ensure that employees do not feel coerced to participate in them.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says courts have not ruled that religious study in public buildings is inherently unconstitutional.
''If there's equal treatment among people who don't attend and there's no pressure, then, frankly, it doesn't violate the First Amendment,'' he says. ''We have not gotten a single complaint from anyone at the White House.''Just posted this because I wanted to hear a bunch of whining about it... :P
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- President Bush talks openly and proudly about his active spiritual faith. In another, less well known sign of the religious devotion that permeates the administration, some White House staffers have been meeting weekly at hour-long prayer and Bible study sessions.
Bush aides organized the sessions before his inauguration. One group meets during the lunch hour on Tuesdays, another on Thursdays. Attendance is voluntary and, although the lessons are Christian in nature, non-Christians are welcome.
Typically, 25 to 50 of the 1,700 people who work in the White House complex -- department heads, secretaries and mail clerks --attend each session. They meet in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, an ornate building next to the White House that houses the offices of Vice President Cheney and other administration officials.
Federal workplace guidelines issued in 1997 permit religious activities but warn supervisors to ensure that employees do not feel coerced to participate in them.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says courts have not ruled that religious study in public buildings is inherently unconstitutional.
''If there's equal treatment among people who don't attend and there's no pressure, then, frankly, it doesn't violate the First Amendment,'' he says. ''We have not gotten a single complaint from anyone at the White House.''Just posted this because I wanted to hear a bunch of whining about it... :P