Separation of church and state group criticizes Brownback for promoting prayer event

Posted by Scott Rothschild December 7, 2012 at 10:55 a.m.

Separation of church and state group criticizes Brownback for promoting prayer event

Americans United for Separation of Church and State on Friday criticized Gov. Sam Brownback for promoting a fundamentalist Christian evangelical event.

“The governor is really overstepping his constitutional bounds," said Vickie Sandell Stangl, president of the Great Plains chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"He was elected to serve as governor of our state, not our state pastor-in-chief.

“The people of Kansas do not need politicians telling us when, how or whether to pray. If anybody needs to repent, it’s Gov. Brownback. He needs to repent for violating the constitutional separation of church and state," Stangl said.

Stangl was criticizing Brownback for promoting a nationally simulcast prayer and worship event put on by ReignDown USA that will be held Saturday in MacLennan Park, which is adjacent to the governor's mansion, Cedar Crest.

In a video promoting the event, Brownback said: "Too often we have forgotten God," and he invites people to pray.

Here is a video that Brownback made. The end of the video says no state resources were used to make the video or in the ReignDown event.

Gov. Brownback invites you to participate on 12-8-12 by Brian Cole

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merrill 5 months, 2 weeks ago

"He needs to repent for violating the constitutional separation of church and state," Stangl said."

Absolutely.

He needs to repent daily for participating in corruption and deception. He is a man of pretend.

How many campaign dollars will he receive for promoting this event?

blindrabbit 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Has that rosy glow of maybe a little too much scnapps, either that or sneaking into the Sunday communal "Blood of Christ" Eucharist wine. He is PREYING on the citizens of Kansas and not PRAYING for his lost soul.

anticommunist 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Since you lack facility to present a reasonable critique of our good Governor, you have to resort to attack on his physical appearance. Fail.

blindrabbit 5 months, 2 weeks ago

mea culpa: "schnapps" not my prior "scnapps".

riverdrifter 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Blind, you can edit your posts, you know.

oletimer 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Can't pray. Can't carry a gun. Can't do this. Can't do that. If all you idiots worried about what everyone else is doing would go get a REAL job, the unemployment rate would be 2%. The United States was a much better place before stangi and the rest of the moron troupe came into the picture. Quit trying to run everyone's life and worry about your own.

Hooligan_016 5 months, 2 weeks ago

I don't know what "stangi" is, but ok.

cait48 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Maybe it's something like amadán. I like calling people names in foreign languages. They don't get deleted :)

beatrice 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Yes, just imagine a bunch of citizens concerned about what an elected governor is doing.

Nobody is saying he can't pray on his own, and nobody is saying people can't carry guns. However, I do appreciate anytime someone lives up to the "bitterly clinging to guns and religion" stereotype.

chootspa 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Personally, I don't care if Brownie wants to invite everyone to a prayer service. I care when he tells people what they can or can't do with their body because of his religious beliefs. A restriction interestingly absent from your economically challenged rant.

PS - Stangl already has a job. I'm not sure what makes a job "real" or imaginary, but I imagine a paycheck is involved somehow.

merrill 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Where are the real jobs that Brownback helped destroy? Supply Side Economics killed them.

Congress needs to explain their logic that the USA economy does not need millions upon millions of blue and white collars working in the USA. Where did these conclusions come from? Corporate America was never going broke instead making tons of profits.

How did blue and white collar workers lose these millions upon millions of jobs?

It’s not the Unions! Reagan/Bush had a big time eliminating USA jobs.

--- 1. Mergers = industry and jobs lost to other countries

--- 3. Leveraged Buyouts = industry and jobs lost to other countries

--- 5. Reagan/Bush Savings and Loan home loan scandal which killed the economy and cost the USA millions of jobs. = industry and jobs lost to other countries

All of above ultimately translate into millions upon millions upon millions of blue and white collar USA job losses in some cases to dictatorships. Big time layoffs are the end result. These jobs go abroad with tax codes that prevent taxation on profits made abroad from USA big name corporations.

There was a time when becoming employed by corporate America came with long term employment, fine wages and dependable retirement benefits. Those days are gone. Why did congress participate in killing the USA economy and millions upon millions of blue and white collar jobs?

anticommunist 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Hear, hear, oletimer! Love Gov. Brownback for promoting GOD. And he's really quite sophisticated about it - this has nothing to do with his position as governor and everything to do with being a disciple of Christ. He's actually implicitly respecting the separation of church and state here -- and he always has. That doesn't mean he must shed his deeply held faith. There's freedom of speech in this country, and it's allowed of even a governor to use it, even to promote God.

Religion will always be offensive to godless liberals because if they took the energy and time to look, religious principles are the mortar that hold civilization together. The fallibility of humanity will never hold up this world.

beatrice 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Which religion? Which god?

The fallibility of humanity is all the more reason to not believe in the gods mankind invents in its own image.

anticommunist 5 months, 2 weeks ago

You are betraying you're own atheistic fundamentalism here, beatrice.

If you'd watch the video and actually listen, Gov. Brownback is not interested in pointing fingers or telling any person they're wrong in any way. Rather, people of any faith could go to this meeting and pool their spiritual resource for the betterment of our shared society.

This goes beyond partisan religious or political designation.

beatrice 5 months, 2 weeks ago

People of any faith does not include people of NO faith. One has to believe in "spirtual" anything to believe in the rather ludicrious notion of pooling spiritual resources. Will there be an operator, forwarding prayers to the right entitity -- "Hey Christ, we have a couple more coming in for you over here. And Buddha, we have a message for you. Oh, and Mother Earth, some people are dancing about -- I think they're yours." Silly.

And I would argue that I am probably agnostic. I don't believe there is a "higher power" and am even more certain that nobody here among us knows, hence all the variations on the theme, but there may still be something out there. What ever it might be, I suspect it doesn't give a damn if we pray to it or not. If it did and it listened to Brownback, we would be talking about president-elect Perry right now.

cait48 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Somehow I think my brand of Celtic Reconstructionism would not be particularly welcomed.

Liberty275 5 months, 2 weeks ago

She's the sort that believes in souls. She can't be an atheist until she realizes whatever soul she thinks she might have will be long dead before her body hit's the ground.

That said, your ability to grasp and defend a faith is admirable.

Bea is no fundamentalist. I think she's scared to be. She's still nice though.

ridikkulus 5 months, 2 weeks ago

If you need a religion to tell you to be a decent person, it's EMPATHY you lack, not religion.

blindrabbit 5 months, 2 weeks ago

river: My computer is so old, it does not have a spell-check feature! This is a touchy subject in the family, my wife wants to this old unit (and I'm not speaking of myself).

blindrabbit 5 months, 2 weeks ago

anticommunist: You mentioned Brownbacks "deeply held faith", PLEASE!! The guy has flipped his church membership as often a McCain has flipped his stance on a variety of issues. The only thing that I've seen flip more is the halibut I caught in Alaska a couple of years ago; I thought it was going to destroy the boat.

anticommunist 5 months, 2 weeks ago

you're exaggerating. he became a catholic some time after becoming our U.S. senator -- so? you act like someone cannot change their mind on any matter. He practices catholicism and attends the church his kids grew up in. Seems to me he respects the core of the message rather than being an ideologue.

cait48 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Actually, he started as a Methodist, converted to Evangelicalism when he went to Topeka as state Ag secretary, converted to Catholicism when he went to DC and since returning to Topeka is attending the same Evangelical church he attended before going to DC. Whew! His "Christianity" is most definitely "flavor of the month".

anticommunist 5 months, 2 weeks ago

and he'll go down in history as the absolute worst president this country has ever seen. if there's a country left after he's done.

beatrice 5 months, 2 weeks ago

or more than likely he won't.

kernal 5 months, 2 weeks ago

No one has beat Millard Fillmore for that title, but Bush is certainly a close second.

anticommunist 5 months, 2 weeks ago

This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.

anticommunist 5 months, 2 weeks ago

This is America. You make yourself here.

Your suggestion that "religion is how he gets" the lower classes to vote for him does two fundamentally wrong things:

Lower classes, typically not posessing a college degree, are too stupid to think for themselves
By voting conservative, lower classes are voting against their economic interests. (again, because they're too dumb)

wrong and wrong. people not shackled by a liberal arts degree are more liquid, free thinkers. they aren't bound by liberal, ivory tower dogma.

conservatism actually promotes the upliftment of lower classes. in this country, you get to go out and kick butt and make your own money. and when you make it, it doesn't get taken away by THE GOVERNMENT.

anticommunist 5 months, 2 weeks ago

go read "what's the matter with kansas" for the 50th time and make yourself feel better because you read popcorn drivel trash that helps the liberal mind cope with the fact that the "uneducated duped" conservatives of heartland america can't "think for themselves"

beatrice 5 months, 2 weeks ago

I thought it looked more like he was ready to say, "Hi. Welcome to the neighborhood."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEuefF8fFRE

cait48 5 months, 2 weeks ago

I can't either. I bust out bawling.

Liberty275 5 months, 2 weeks ago

"overstepping his constitutional bounds," said Vickie Sandell Stangl"

No he isn't, he is speaking his opinion just like everyone else and his first amendment rights are not in any way inferior to yours while speaking as a private citizen.

When a man asks me to pray, I wonder how people are brainwashed into believing in gods, but never once does it cross my mind that I should tell that man to shut up.

We aren't all thin-skinned nor are we anxious to to criticize the rights of a fellow citizen.

" The end of the video says no state resources were used to make the video or in the ReignDown event. "

Either prove that is a lie or admit you are being petty.

Liberty275 5 months, 2 weeks ago

If you run them while they are closed you'll see squiggly lights.

blindrabbit 5 months, 2 weeks ago

I had the "opprotunity" to talk to Sam back in 1996 at the Lawrence Holidome; asked him about a pet project that my wife and I were involved with at the time, the Z-Bar ranch property in Chase County. The property later became The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Sam at that time said any environmental /conservation issues for Kansas would need to be approached "on a cost benefit analysis". His lack of support pointed out that it would come at a cost to Kansans and a benefit to him. Supporters were Graves, Kasebaum, Roberts, Glickman, Hayden. Interestingly, Chase County, one of the poorest in the State felt that a proposed State Prison might be a better choice than the proposed National Preserve, both came to fruition..

Liberty275 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Is the prison near the preserve?

blindrabbit 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Nope, both are on K-177. Prison is just down the hill from the famous courthouse in Cottonwood Falls, the TGPNP is about 3 miles north of Strong City. The two are about 6 miles apart.

cait48 5 months, 2 weeks ago

I find it kind of fascinating that the majority of our "founding fathers" were both Deists and Masons. Now, being a Deist will get you kicked out of the AF&AM AND the Republican party. Funny, that, huh?

Liberal 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Being a Deist will not get you kicked out of the Masons, a deist believes that G_d does not interfere in the functioning of the material world. Since a Deist believes in G_d that is all that is required to be a Mason. It does not matter which G_d a person believes in, that is why people of all religions are able to be Masons.