At last Monday’s meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees, trustee Tom Fuentes did the invocation. He laid it on pretty thick, and even managed to throw in a mildly offensive reference to Ronald Reagan.He prayed as follows:
To see the prayer, go to District’s streaming media archives.Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, you the God of whom we say, “in God we trust”; you the God of whom we ask, “God bless America”; you the God of whom we speak when we proclaim our people to be “one nation under God”; we ask you to bless our gathering this evening. We ask you to guide us in our decision-making; we ask you to bless all those who work in our district to educate and serve our students; we ask you to bless all the students who come to learn; we ask you to bless the people of the South Orange County Community College District. And in this month of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan, whose role in the founding of this college and of our district was so critical, we remember him. Amen.
Scroll down; click on VIDEO for the February 28 meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees.
That should open the video player (Mac users, use Firefox).
Fuentes’ invocation starts at exactly one minute into the meeting.
13 comments:
I don't know man, I like getting blessed.
Sure, but by Tom Freakin' Fuentes?
Isn't the problem here the self righteous use of the word "we"? If the fellow wants to say "I," as in "the god of whom I speak" then it's somewhat less presumptuous. The nerve he has for deeming himself worthy of declaring this to be true for everyone in the room is stunning.
Most of his constituents are Christian--and certainly theistic. He would likely argue that he is doing the will of the people who elected him and that the minority who feel otherwise are not hurt by the prayers, in part because the audience comprises adults. Some are angered, not by his desire to engage in prayer (in this setting), but by his seeming refusal to temper or restrict his prayers to something more universal.
Your position is well stated, 12:23, but I'm suspicious as to what the man's motives are. As he is somewhat reptilian (and sorry to insult reptiles), he's probably just doing the usual red meat tossing to make himself look like the defender of the put upon Christian faithful, who get picked on all the time by the big meanies.
Reptilian or not, Fuentes is happy to toss red meat at like-minded creatures. The evidence suggests, I think, that he feels oppressed when it is suggested that he cannot pray anywhere, anytime. To do so is, after all, a kind of freedom too. What people like him fail to appreciate, it seems, is that that "freedom" conflicts with the "freedom" not to have religion (or a particular religion) shoved down one's throat--or, anyway, to have it imposed on an audience in a community that supposedly has learned to protect against the imposition of religion by government authorities. People like Fuentes are suspiciously selective in what they'll recognize as part of our cultural/political heritage. That we struggled to get away from imposed religion is not, it seemed, recognized by Fuentes' crowd or the newer "Tea Party" crowd.
You guys whine like little children.
Good argument, 3:55! Very impressive indeed!
All whiners are jerks
All jerks are people commenting on this blog post
Therefore, all whiners are people commenting on this blog post
It appears from the little witticisms of 3:55 and 9:03 that there must have been a teacher conference day at the local junior high, leaving some little wags home alone. Their attempted "bon mots" are more akin to "non mots." Try again, though, please, after your glasses of milk.
Hey, hey, don't be so sassy now! First you say they are little witticisms (I agree), then you say they aren't witty? What ever happened to maintaining a little consistency? Take care big boy, I'm going to go have a glass of milk. Rather be a kid than a big, mean anonymous.
Have mom warm it up first, and then get a dictionary (it's the big book you stand on when you brush your teeth) and look up the word "irony." It's three syllables, so be patient.
They must be busy figuring out what they are standing on when they brush their teeth. We'll be patient while they figure it out. Too funny 3:42.
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