Hi Jeff,

I appreciate these debates we're having. Although I only have time to reply to this at this time. Work's getting pretty crazy. Okay, for your first question, prayer doesn't promote religion in the first place. The intention of prayer is to have a spiritual connection or conversation with God. If you pray for the sake of image, I'd say that's wrong. That's already being insincere and it's a misuse of prayer. As for schools, I doubt the sincerity of almost everyone who's praying before a class. I experienced it myself. People are praying just for the sake of praying because they have to and the meaning of prayer is lost and hypocrisy can emanate.

As for the 2nd question, sorry. I'm a little confused. "then banning prayer because it promotes religion would be incorrect, wouldn't it?" I'm confused to the negatives. Did you mean, banning prayer because it promotes religion is correct?

Thirdly, to me, the spirit of the holidays overcomes other intentions. Holiday displays aren't intended for promotion but rather celebration. Some of my friends from other religions, particularly, I he's think a Jehovah's witness and they do not celebrate Christmas joins our gatherings in celebration of Christmas.

I emphasized sincerity because faith is more on the person. It's good to have others with you but it's more important not to lose sight of the your own beliefs. Sometimes, people lose their way and it becomes more the image than the faith.