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I guess you've never been the person sitting there uncomfortably while other people assume you are one of the group and subject you to a religious service you didn't sign up for. I lived in Utah as a Southern Baptist, and experienced it all the time, which is what largely influenced my views on the subject.
I grew up Roman Catholic, so there may have been all sorts of things 'forced' on me....(ba boom!) No seriously, unwanted proselytizing can be an annoyance for sure, but not life altering unless you allow it to be.
A few thoughts:
First, public prayers for the sake of being public about them are expressly forbidden, BY CHRIST, in the New Testament.
This is your interoperation of the scriptures. Which I am positive the scriptures also say there can be none of.
Second, what is the goal of such conduct, if it is not rewarded by God? Generally speaking, it is done because the believers are so inconsiderate that they feel they must subject other people to their practices.
Again, you are looking at this as though you were offended personally. Again I ask you to come up with one resident who publicly claimed they were offended, or "forced" to endure such a hardship as a prayer before their meal? Can you? In fact I would venture a guess that the resident were fore square in favor of the prayer which is why the Mayor of the town made a personal appearance and pledge that he would get to work to overturn this.
That being the case, I would ask why it is that liberals feel it their duty to force their beliefs on people that had no complaint to begin with?
Third, what does such behavior do for the cause of Christ? Be specific. What is this sort of public prayer designed to accomplish, in your opinion? I'd really like to know.
Spiritual guidance can be a great comfort to those in the end stages of their lives. More than one study has shown over and over, that people entering the latter years of life often turn to their faith as a comfort, and solace. This was a group of seniors within their own facility offering a prayer before lunch for heavens sake. Not some sandwich board wearing homeless man in the park screaming 'repent'!!!
And even if it was, what makes you libs so scared of prayer that you feel you must take it away?
j-mac