In a state such as Florida, where 82% of citizens report adhering to any form of Christianity, it is obvious that the contents of a school prayer legalized under S.B. 98 would contain a Christian leaning.
In other words, as Americans United for Separation of Church and State has written, it is not appropriate to vote for the contents of a school prayer as students might vote for officers in class government.
Puritanism ranged from hostility to the content of the Prayer Book and "popish" ceremony, to a desire for church governance to be radically reformed.
The majority affirmed language in a prior 1983 opinion, Marsh v. Chambers, that "the content of the prayer is not of concern to judges" if "there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other faith or belief".
As Douglas Laycock of the University of Texas puts it, the lower court "created the worst of both worlds: the prayer is imposed on people who object and the state is censoring the content of the prayer".
Of course, this liturgy -- harsh, searching, but also cleansing and awe-inspiring -- is said only once per year, no doubt because the rabbis understood that we would be overwhelmed if every day this were the primary content of Jewish prayer.
Exegesis of a prayer's intellectual content is the outer cortex.
The court said in a 5-4 decision that the content of the prayers is not significant as long as they do not denigrate non-Christians or try to win converts.
These weren't complaints about the inappropriateness of Warren being chosen to deliver the invocation, or even about the content of Warren's prayer.
The court also ruled on Wednesday that all of the expert testimony used during the initial trial to evaluate the content of the punk prayer will stand, denying the defendants' request to use alternative independent expert analysis.
