> You doubt that it would be different if it were not someone praying to the Christian God but some other. No, it wouldn't. I would be content to hear it. In fact, I would go beyond that and *listen*. I just would not participate but sit quietly in my seat. Were I in possession of the opportunity to pray within earshot, over a loudspeaker or not, I would expect, and have a right to expect, the same courtesy from you.
>
> Again, I ask why public prayer must be an offense to anyone. Do you also take offense when someone of a different race speaks of his race's heritage? How about if a man speaks of manhood or a woman speaks of womanhood?
>
> It is absurd to take offense at religious expression...

That's exactly the point. I agree that a person's voluntarily saying a prayer over the PA doesn't constitute a "state sponsorship" of religion, and I also agree that simply being required to *listen* to the speaker's prayer should be no issue.

But Shadowfax does allude to one point which I'd like to mention: that many such speakers tend to imply that they expect all others present to participate in their prayer. Shadowfax writes that "You had a guy up front leading a prayer, and via peer pressure, everyone was expected to join in, or at least pretend to have joined in." And although I disagree with Shadowfax's assessment of "peer pressure" as the cause of the dissent, I can see, in a sense, where he was coming from...

I've several times heard speakers, in events not unlike the one which led to the Supreme Court case, introduce a prayer with a statement to the effect of, "Would everybody please bow their heads and join me in prayer?" Now, admittedly, this is more a case of semantic nitpicking than anything else, but wouldn't it be more inviting to those who prefer not to participate, to say something like, "*Those who wish to join me in prayer* may now bow their heads"? I wouldn't mind at all for the speaker to say something like the latter statement when introducing a prayer, but the use of "everybody" in the former message seems to border on being disrespectful...

-- codeman"yet another rambling, incoherent thought"38