Jesus is the New Peanut Butter

My kids can’t bring Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school anymore because there’s a kid who’s “nut intolerant” or something. I don’t want a kid to get sick so I’m cool with it. But I’m thinking that Jesus is the new Peanut butter because you can’t bring Him to school anymore either. It’s getting to the point that anywhere a large group gathers, Jesus isn’t allowed because someone might be Jesus intolerant.

Just today, a Senator in Minnesota is yelling that a preacher opened up the Senate with a prayer and had the gall to mention Jesus. THREE TIMES!!!!! And that made some Jewish legislators…”uncomfortable” and now they’re considering making it against the rules to mention “Jesus” in prayers.

CBS in Minnesota is reporting:

A state senator who is Jewish said Tuesday she was “highly uncomfortable” while a visiting Baptist pastor repeatedly mentioned Jesus Christ and Christianity in a prayer on the floor of the state Senate a day earlier, and wants to require that prayers in the chamber be nondenominational.

The prayer, and the reaction to it by Sen. Terri Bonoff, DFL-Minnetonka, threatens to re-ignite a debate that’s long simmered in the Minnesota Legislature over the content of the invocations that open each Senate and House floor chamber session. Bonoff said she’s met resistance to her concerns from some members of the new Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

“If we’re going to invite clergy to the Senate session to pray, we know they’re coming from a denomination or a religion that represents a belief system,” said Sen. David Brown, R-Becker. “I believe we don’t have the right to censor their prayers.”…

Bonoff, elected to the state Senate in 2005, said it has been Senate tradition that visiting religious leaders are asked to refrain from direct references to any specific faith. The letter given to the visitors by the Secretary of the Senate lays out such a request: “In an effort to be respectful of the religious diversity of our membership (Christian, Jewish and possibly others among them), we request that your prayer be interfaith and nonsectarian.”

After Campbell’s prayer Monday, Bonoff rose to object to its content and demand he not be invited back. She said she was not reassured by an initially noncommittal response from Senate leaders. Bonoff said she intends to ask Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch to commit to changing the letter to say the Senate members “require” rather than “request” that prayers be interfaith and nonsectarian.

“I’m a very religious woman and believe deeply in God,” Bonoff said. “We honor God in public and our political discourse, and that’s proper. But in doing a nondenominational prayer we are honoring him without violating the separation of church and state.”

Bonoff said if Koch won’t commit to the change, she will try to implement it through the Senate rules process. Bonoff said other Jewish members of the Legislature share her concerns.

“It makes anyone who doesn’t pray through Jesus Christ, or believe in Jesus Christ — it makes them feel like they don’t belong,” said Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, who is Jewish. “It makes me feel like I don’t belong on the Senate floor to which I was duly elected by my constituents. In a government chamber, I and others should not be made to feel that way.”

Feel. Feel. Feel. Can you imagine an adult complaining that they were made to feel like they didn’t belong. Are we in junior high? Grow up. The guy mentioned Jesus. Big deal. Oh, your precious feelings require that no mention of Jesus enter your ears?

I understand that it’s a tradition to keep the prayers a bit unspecific among a group of people of different faiths but this one preacher mentioned Jesus on one day and you’re so offended that you now want to banish Jesus by rule or law from the Senate floor just to ensure that you’re never made to feel that you’re not one of the gang. Really?

Hawaii has done away with prayers altogether on the legislative floor for fear of offending people and for fear of lawsuits of course.

We’ve got to stop kow-towing to these nuts. You know what, I’m now officially nut intolerant.