While California homosexuals overturned a ban on gay marriage last week, Colorado atheists were busy trying to ban prayer from city council meetings.

Apparently, 13 members of the Western Colorado Atheists asked the Grand Junction City Council to eliminate prayer from the beginning of their meetings. Why? You know their reasoning. It's the same old song and dance: It's a violation of the First Amendment and the separation of church and state.

But these atheists make the same classic blunder about the First Amendment that the American Civil Liberties Union and others have been making for years. They reinterpret it in ways it never was intended to be understood. They actually use the very amendment that is intended to protect our religious and speech rights and liberties and turn it on its head and make it a law of prohibition against prayer. And in so doing, they bastardize America's founding documents and Founders.

America needs to be re-educated about the Constitution! The First Amendment wasn't written to exclude religion from public places, but to prohibit government from restricting our right to exercise freely our religious convictions and speech — including the combination of both in prayer! As Thomas Jefferson explained, "A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government ... and what no just government should refuse or rest on inference." Religious and speech paralysis was not the Founders' intent. Could it be any clearer in the First Amendment?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Notice the wording does not even include the phrase "the separation of church and state." Those words came much later, in 1802, from Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists, to whom he asserted that no particular Christian denomination was going to have a monopoly in government. Even then, his words "a wall of separation between church and state" were not written to remove all religious practice from government or civic settings, but to prohibit the domination and even legislation of religious sectarianism, as it reigned back in England.

Some might be completely surprised to discover that just two days after Jefferson wrote his famous letter citing the "wall of separation between church and state," he attended church in the place where he always had as president: the U.S. Capitol. The very seat of our nation's government was used for sacred purposes. As the Library of Congress Web site notes, "It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and of James Madison (1809-1817) the state became the church."

What atheists need to know is that atheism was virtually nonexistent in the early days of America. As Ben Franklin's 1787 pamphlet for those in Europe thinking of relocating to America highlighted, "Atheism is unknown there."

The Founders believed and relied upon God's power to help them. That is why Ben Franklin fought for prayer in the Constitutional Congress and even testified about its former influence in the struggle for America's independence: "In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard; and they were graciously answered."

Let us also not forget even today that our sessions of Congress still begin with prayer, as they have ever since it convened in 1789. And the U.S. Supreme Court still begins with the exclamation "God save the United States and this Honorable Court!"

Did I mention that there are 13 atheists in Colorado who want the Grand Junction City Council to eliminate the invocations from their civic meetings?

The fact is these atheists have every right to voice their grievance; that is their First Amendment right to freedom of speech. But their request to restrict others' religious freedom is unconstitutional. And it is on that basis of the councilors' First Amendment rights that they (and any other requests like this one across our land) ought to be denied forthrightly as unconstitutional. It is the constitutional right of all civic leaders and groups to include prayer as a constituent of their meetings.

I was proud to hear the patriotic defense of one of the Grand Junction City Council members. This country needs more governing officials like Councilman Doug Thomason, who individually responded to this atheistic request to remove prayer with this patriotic reply: "I'm no religious fanatic, but this country was founded on Christian principles, and we've gone so far away from that that it's mind-boggling. If they choose not to observe the invocation, that's their prerogative. But they're not going to infringe upon my rights to hear that invocation."

On Wednesday, the Grand Junction City Council plans to meet privately and settle this spiritual matter. I pray that God will give them the constitutional courage to stand up for their rights and not be bullied to pacify anyone who would usurp them. God bless those councilors and all who stand for freedom today! And God bless those who fight and those who've died to secure those rights for us. I even pray that God will bless those 13 atheists, no matter in which foxholes they lie.

To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CHUCK NORRIS

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