They still believe in mind/body dualism. Since molestation happens to the body, and forced religion happens to the mind, they don't see a connection. They haven't learned that the mind is something a part of the body does.
There are actually a lot of deeply-closeted Bi people in places like Alabama (I used to run AIDS clinics - trust me, I know). And some among them project the most virulent anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Evilgelical Christianity creates no small amount of the personality disorders in the population. And there are significant numbers of Moslems and Jews. This puts a significant burden on the parents of the exposed children to explain why they are not second-class citizens.
In 2025-2026, Alabama consistently ranks in the bottom tier nationally for health and education, with U.S. News & World Report placing the state 45th overall. Education is ranked 44th, driven by low educational attainment. Health outcomes are also poor, with rankings of 40th to 47th, influenced by high rates of preventable deaths and low infant/maternal health rankings.
Bullshit. That's exactly what he's trying to do. To suggest that frequently there are children who don't have the option to pray, or even be aware of what prayer is, in Alabama, is absurd.
When I was in music camp more than 60 years ago, they had Sunday services which the camp director claimed were non-denominational. Yes they were, if by non-denominational they referred to Jesus. I said I didn’t want to go because I was Jewish. They allowed me to skip it. No other kids stood up and said they didn’t want to go, even though there were other others Jewish kids there
Do we ALL agree? Clearly not, because the Republican party has gone all in on the idea that some people need to be 'put in their place' and some people deserve to be raised up based solely on their race, gender and belief in the supernatural.
“A lot of these kids don’t understand what the flag is.”
“A lot of times, kids don’t have the option to pray and they don’t know what prayer means.”
This ass really doesn’t think much of children, does he. “Oh, kids don’t know anything about flags or prayer. We gotta make them genuflect for them to understand.” This also is an admission that the schools aren’t performing, since the flag is part of the curriculum and learning about prayers can be a part of the school experience when done in a secular manner. It’s even an admission that the churches are failing since they are the ones that are supposed to teach about prayer and if kids don’t know about it then the churches are the ones not doing their jobs. And if he’s upset that children aren’t going to church, well that’s just the marketplace of ideas making a statement. Forcing students to listen to prayers in public school isn’t going to make them want to go to church.
One wonders if civics is still being taught in Alabama schools, and one suspects that it isn't. This is been a problem for more years than I care to count, even in my home state of Ohio.
If Alabama school curricula cannot budget time for lessons in civics, I would love to know why.
Matthew 6:5-6. Wanna read the bible to kids? Start with that one. And be sure to sit in on class that day because you most definitely need to learn it.
“While Republicans were quick to say during a committee hearing that both the Pledge and prayer were voluntary, they failed to mention how students would be coerced into participating.”
Even if students went into the halls or chose not to participate, how would they be able to avoid it? The pledge and prayers would most likely be done over the loudspeakers in the schools, rather than done separately in individual classrooms. The loudspeakers reach the entire building, every classroom, every hallway, even the bathrooms. Sure the kids can refuse to stand (ha, we know how that goes, we have plenty of examples of kids getting in trouble with the principal and even examples of physical brutality against students who don’t perform the necessary gestures) or bow their heads, but they still have to hear it no matter what. Sermons in church are all about listening to the religious gobbledygook so that you eventually believe the wild nonsense. Ingram even says the purpose of the bill is to make students hear prayer. There’s nothing constitutional about this, there’s no way to not participate.
Apart from the psychological effect it has on the believer, I do not think prayer ever altered the outcome of anything. This is all about getting kids used to rote conformity, and carving out a privileged place for Christians because as we all know, they are the most persecuted people in this country.
When you compare Bible study or Sunday school lessons with public education lessons you will see a huge disparity in the quality of the lessons. Bible study and Sunday school are more shallow focusing on memorization and surface understanding, and anything deeper is more structured with an emphasis on understanding the verses in exactly the way the church wants you to rather than any critical thinking. Public school curriculum spend a lot of time managing different learning styles, looking for deeper understandings of concepts, using scaffolding to build on past knowledge, showing why things are beyond God did it, and memorization is used as a tool only in situations that require it, not as the main source of knowledge. The questions are deeper, more complex and utilize the students’ thought processes than in Sunday schools.
The Christian nationalists are already pushing for Sunday school curriculum in public school classrooms, they start with pushing prayers, but they never stop there. They want rote conformity and they don’t hide their desires very well. That’s what this is. Pure and simple.
At this point, all of those organizations probably have a draft lawsuit tailored to this situation. All they have to do is insert the state name, print, and file.
Between FFRF and AU, I suspect they have seen more prayer-in-school proposals than either of us would care to count, to the point where the response could become boilerplate, perhaps with some tailoring. Also any feigned "We didn't know this was wrong" crap on behalf of Ingram or the bill's other supporters would be a load of horse manure, unless all of them have been living in a cave.
So ... more time and money wasted in court that could be used for far better purposes.
For the record, I am sure this is going to get struck down by 1A laws even by the conservative Supreme Court in Alabama. But you cannot force children to say the pledge or allegiance. Additionally, having a prayer representative is literally the state putting one religion above others. If only Alabama put this much effort into their kids academic achievement
Forcing religion on the most vulnerable. How is that not molestation?
They still believe in mind/body dualism. Since molestation happens to the body, and forced religion happens to the mind, they don't see a connection. They haven't learned that the mind is something a part of the body does.
So the mind bone is connected to the skull bone, skull bone is connected to neck bone, neck is connected to the back bone, and oh look at them bones!
There’s your anatomy lesson, kids.
It is bad when atheists, hindus, muslims and anyone not xian are doing it. Not when THEY does it. Duh.
Once again, NatCs show us who the true child groomers are. And there isn't a single drag queen or LGBTQ among them.
"And there isn't a single" open, out of the closet, accepting of who they themselves are "drag queen or LGBTQ among them". Sorry, had to fix that.
There are actually a lot of deeply-closeted Bi people in places like Alabama (I used to run AIDS clinics - trust me, I know). And some among them project the most virulent anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Evilgelical Christianity creates no small amount of the personality disorders in the population. And there are significant numbers of Moslems and Jews. This puts a significant burden on the parents of the exposed children to explain why they are not second-class citizens.
Jesus said not to take oaths or pray in public, so naturally white Evangelicals insist kids do both every day.
In 2025-2026, Alabama consistently ranks in the bottom tier nationally for health and education, with U.S. News & World Report placing the state 45th overall. Education is ranked 44th, driven by low educational attainment. Health outcomes are also poor, with rankings of 40th to 47th, influenced by high rates of preventable deaths and low infant/maternal health rankings.
𝐼𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛’𝑡 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛.
“𝐼𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑒’𝑣𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠,” 𝐼𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑. “𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑛-𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑓 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑎 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑟𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑏𝑦.”
There's the problem. Ingram thinks that all 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 schools are religious by default. As evidenced by this statement:
“𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑡,” 𝐼𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑. “𝐴 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑠, 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝐼 𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡.”
Then there's this contradictory statement:
“𝐼’𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑚 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔,” 𝐼𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑. “𝐴 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠, 𝑘𝑖𝑑𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠.”
Bullshit. That's exactly what he's trying to do. To suggest that frequently there are children who don't have the option to pray, or even be aware of what prayer is, in Alabama, is absurd.
When I was in music camp more than 60 years ago, they had Sunday services which the camp director claimed were non-denominational. Yes they were, if by non-denominational they referred to Jesus. I said I didn’t want to go because I was Jewish. They allowed me to skip it. No other kids stood up and said they didn’t want to go, even though there were other others Jewish kids there
"Conform or be cast out" - N. Peart
“𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑑..."
Do we ALL agree? Clearly not, because the Republican party has gone all in on the idea that some people need to be 'put in their place' and some people deserve to be raised up based solely on their race, gender and belief in the supernatural.
“A lot of these kids don’t understand what the flag is.”
“A lot of times, kids don’t have the option to pray and they don’t know what prayer means.”
This ass really doesn’t think much of children, does he. “Oh, kids don’t know anything about flags or prayer. We gotta make them genuflect for them to understand.” This also is an admission that the schools aren’t performing, since the flag is part of the curriculum and learning about prayers can be a part of the school experience when done in a secular manner. It’s even an admission that the churches are failing since they are the ones that are supposed to teach about prayer and if kids don’t know about it then the churches are the ones not doing their jobs. And if he’s upset that children aren’t going to church, well that’s just the marketplace of ideas making a statement. Forcing students to listen to prayers in public school isn’t going to make them want to go to church.
And Tommy doesn't know what day it is
He doesn't know who Jesus was or what praying is
How can he be saved
From the eternal grave?
One wonders if civics is still being taught in Alabama schools, and one suspects that it isn't. This is been a problem for more years than I care to count, even in my home state of Ohio.
If Alabama school curricula cannot budget time for lessons in civics, I would love to know why.
Because they’re too busy making Ten Commandments displays and forcing kids to pray all the time.
To Ingram and others:
Matthew 6:5-6. Wanna read the bible to kids? Start with that one. And be sure to sit in on class that day because you most definitely need to learn it.
"what prayer means.” - Trying to get an all knowing (and imaginary) god to change its mind.
I seriously doubt that the Southern Baptists in Alabama foisting this silly law on schools would want me to lead that morning prayer.
It could sound an awful lot like the opening Surah of the Qur’an.
In ARABIC.
Because I’ve done just that in places where I volunteered to “lead” prayer, among strongly evangelical groups.
(Sometimes I recite the Wiccan Rede.)
“𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐺𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑,” 𝐼𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑. “𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑦. 𝐴 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑑𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑔 𝑖𝑠.”
Maybe these kids don't want to die in a far away place, stealing oil resources for a few oligarchs to help them getting even richer than they are now.
🎶And it's 1-2-3
What are we fightin' for?
Don't ask me I don't give a damn
Next stop is in Tehran 🎶
With apologies to the late Country Joe McDonald
I wonder if he agrees with Congressman Ogles that Muslims have no place in American society.
I absolutely would not put it past him.
“While Republicans were quick to say during a committee hearing that both the Pledge and prayer were voluntary, they failed to mention how students would be coerced into participating.”
Even if students went into the halls or chose not to participate, how would they be able to avoid it? The pledge and prayers would most likely be done over the loudspeakers in the schools, rather than done separately in individual classrooms. The loudspeakers reach the entire building, every classroom, every hallway, even the bathrooms. Sure the kids can refuse to stand (ha, we know how that goes, we have plenty of examples of kids getting in trouble with the principal and even examples of physical brutality against students who don’t perform the necessary gestures) or bow their heads, but they still have to hear it no matter what. Sermons in church are all about listening to the religious gobbledygook so that you eventually believe the wild nonsense. Ingram even says the purpose of the bill is to make students hear prayer. There’s nothing constitutional about this, there’s no way to not participate.
The only way for a student to not participate is if that student is hearing impaired and turns off their hearing aids during the prayer.
Apart from the psychological effect it has on the believer, I do not think prayer ever altered the outcome of anything. This is all about getting kids used to rote conformity, and carving out a privileged place for Christians because as we all know, they are the most persecuted people in this country.
When you compare Bible study or Sunday school lessons with public education lessons you will see a huge disparity in the quality of the lessons. Bible study and Sunday school are more shallow focusing on memorization and surface understanding, and anything deeper is more structured with an emphasis on understanding the verses in exactly the way the church wants you to rather than any critical thinking. Public school curriculum spend a lot of time managing different learning styles, looking for deeper understandings of concepts, using scaffolding to build on past knowledge, showing why things are beyond God did it, and memorization is used as a tool only in situations that require it, not as the main source of knowledge. The questions are deeper, more complex and utilize the students’ thought processes than in Sunday schools.
The Christian nationalists are already pushing for Sunday school curriculum in public school classrooms, they start with pushing prayers, but they never stop there. They want rote conformity and they don’t hide their desires very well. That’s what this is. Pure and simple.
Now Oraxx, when I was a Theist, prayer helped me find my keys every time!
Hope FFRF, AU and others have already gotten wind of this misbegotten, blatantly unconstitutional bill and have popped their claws ala Wolverine.
*SNIKT!*
At this point, all of those organizations probably have a draft lawsuit tailored to this situation. All they have to do is insert the state name, print, and file.
Between FFRF and AU, I suspect they have seen more prayer-in-school proposals than either of us would care to count, to the point where the response could become boilerplate, perhaps with some tailoring. Also any feigned "We didn't know this was wrong" crap on behalf of Ingram or the bill's other supporters would be a load of horse manure, unless all of them have been living in a cave.
So ... more time and money wasted in court that could be used for far better purposes.
For the record, I am sure this is going to get struck down by 1A laws even by the conservative Supreme Court in Alabama. But you cannot force children to say the pledge or allegiance. Additionally, having a prayer representative is literally the state putting one religion above others. If only Alabama put this much effort into their kids academic achievement