SBOE Conservative Dunbar Read a Liberal's Prayer
In advance of the State Board of Education's attempt today to undermine modern notions of church-state separation, board member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, stuck her typical pose in a prayer with overt political overtones — performed quite overtly to start a government meeting. But a pose and a performance it was, it turns out — she was having a bit of fun with her detractors in the left-leaning blogosphere: She read the words verbatim from a prayer given in 1954 by liberal icon and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren.
"The entirety of what everybody is freaking out about, I can ...
Comments (13)
Al_Stanley
Were Earl Warren's words taken from a prayer or a speech? The 1954 <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936197,00.html">Time</a> article describes the Chief Justice as speaking at that year's National Prayer Breakfast. His words seem to me to be more of a reflection directed to an ecumenical audience than an entreaty to God.
Whatever Warren's long-ago intent, Cynthia Dunbar wedged his words into the form of a prayer by bracketing them with an opening ("Heavenly Father ... As we look to our past to guide us, let us reflect on the convictions of those who have gone before us.") and a closing ("All this I pray in the name of my lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.")
An essential element of a prayer, though, is that the words be directed to God. Dunbar was playing in large part to the media. Is the media perhaps Dunbar's god? She also appears to have been provoking her critics, making this one of the oddest exercises in "prayer" I've ever witnessed.
The words of the Chief Justice in 1954, "I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion," are a long way from the position of the fundamentalist bloc on the Texas State Board of Education, that the United States is a Christian nation, and I believe that Warren chose his words carefully, mindful of "the wall of separation between church and state."
What is "the spirit of the Christian religion"? To some, it might mean following the Golden Rule, exercising forgiveness, giving alms or even (gasp) exercising humility and avoiding self-righteousness. Further, Warren did not say, "we are living in such-and-such a way" or even that "I believe that we are living in such-and-such a way," but, "I like to believe that we are living in such-and-such a way," where that "way" is rather vague (and I believe deliberately so).
The words of Earl Warren provide a welcome contras with the words, thoughts and deeds of Dunbar. Warren's words are remarkably inclusive and mild, especially for the time. So let us indeed "reflect on the convictions of those who have gone before us" recognizing there are nuances to those convictions and how they were expressed.
dshaas
I suspect Earl Warren is spinning in his grave at Cynthia Dunbar's misappropriation of his words.
Earl Warren - along with LBJ, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, and a host of others - worked to advance the causes of civil rights and equal protection, causes that Dunbar and the other members of the board would like to write out of the history books.
Warren would never have condoned the rewriting of history that took place in Austin this week, quite the contrary - he would have opposed it and voted with the minority.
Clay Boatright via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If I'm not mistaken, doesn't every day of the legislative session open with a prayer?
Irene Solnik via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I wish with a reading from the Bill of Rights.
John Franks via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The "prayer" that Dunbar gave was from a speech that Earl Warren gave in February 1954 to a prayer breakfast. Nothing like taking something Earl Warren said at a prayer breakfast and getting some good quotes. This quote has been going around the Christian web sites for a while.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936197,00.html
Evelyn White via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Cynthia Dunbar belongs back in 1954.
Denise Kennedy via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Belongs at a PRAYER breakfast, not in a public forum where the school curriculum for thousands of school children is being determined.
Daniel Day via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I simply reply with my blog.
http://thedaysword6.blogspot.com/2010/05/tolerance-by-atheist-required.html
RebeccaBellMetereau
I don't think the fact that people didn't recognize a quote from a prayer breakfast from 1954 indicates that they don't know history. The fact that a board member would use such a quote without immediately giving credit for the quotation is typical of extremists on this board. Mr. McElroy has already plagiarized from a UCLA website and from Wikipedia in his section of the curriculum on "American exceptionalism." With their hundreds and hundreds of revisions, the extremists didn't see fit to remove these plagiarized sections, even though Dr. Michael Soto exposed this problem at the Mexican American Legislative Caucus hearing. No board members attended that hearing, although they offered to pay for transportation and lodging for Chair Gail Lowe if she would come to the hearing.
We need to vote for people in November who are honest and direct, who take the board seriously, and who won't play games with education.
Rebecca Bell-Metereau
Candidate for SBOE District 5
Please visit www.voterebecca.com for more information about my views.
mgburg
I think that what Ms. Dunbar did was brilliant from the standpoint that she used WORDS to attack an ideology that is infiltrating our lives from every aspect that it can, while attacking the very foundations of what made us who we are and help form are Nation to be the best in the world and where ANYONE LEGALLY CAN COME AND SUCCEED...the key word being "SUCCEED" - not "SUCK THE SEED" of life from it.
With that said, here's what EVERYONE needs to get a firm grip on before approaching another QWERTY keyboard...
Who's yanking your chain? Or...are you REALLY speaking for yourself? Are YOU willing to take up arms and defend your words or are you going to hide behind some haystack of ill-conceived logic to save yourself from further embarrassment?
I'm getting sick and tired of picking up school-books and reading "particial quotes" from historical documents with phrases like "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed ... with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
The " ... " part is what's in textbooks NOW. Are a bunch of chicken-***t bureacrats afraid of three simple words, such as "by their Creator" that they have to attempt to hide them from children and some adults too? Are they THAT ASHAMED OF THEIR PARENTS AND THEIR PARENTS' PARENTS THAT THEY HAVE TO "RE-WRITE" THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY? Yet, they want, and approve of, our legislators and elected to go around the world and apologize for being who we are and why we're where we are today.
I really wonder who's more intelligent...the kids waiting to learn in the classrooms or those that think they know what's "right."
I'm leaning heavily on the kids right now. They happen to be OUR FUTURE. And God help us if we continue to get it wrong.
mgburg
And by the way...any candidate for appointed, or elected office, that CAN'T, or WON'T, be proud of where they came from and stand up for what's morally right (as opposed to what's "Politically Correct") shouldn't be allowed within the classrooms of children, let alone being left in charge of them and their learning. If you can't teach the truth, acknowledge the truth or be proud of the truth, then you're worst than actual child-molesters, in the vein of psychological.
Period.
Collin Haven
Political overtones? Where were politics mentioned? Obviously a prayer before a government meeting will have some kind of political tone. It's not like she'll be praying that each of the board members' farms produce a good harvest.
Timothy George
If we are going to curb the violence that is taking place in our schools, then we must see that prayer is allowed, and all students are given their free speech right to assemble for such activities. We did not have the problems in schools, that we have today, when prayer was allowed, and rather than arming teachers with weapons, why not give them Bibles instead. The Golden Rule is to do unto others, as you would have them do unto yourself. Just as Ruth was able to stop Haman from destroying the Jews, and she used prayer, with fasting, we too can stop the violence in schools the same way at such a time as this. I pray that our leaders will enact bold legislation to bring this to pass.