TEXAS: Prayer Rally Suit Dismissed

The atheist group suing to stop Texas Gov. Rick Perry's prayer rally have lost their case.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop Gov. Rick Perry from sponsoring a national day of Christian prayer and fasting, ruling Thursday that the group of atheists and agnostics did not have legal standing to sue. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller said the Freedom From Religion Foundation argued against Perry's involvement based merely on feelings of exclusion but did not show sufficient harm to merit the injunction it sought. The governor has done nothing more than invite others who are willing to do so to pray," Miller said. Rich Bolton, who argued for the group, said he is considering an appeal. "I wonder if we had a Muslim governor what would happen if the whole state was called to a Muslim prayer," said Kay Staley, one of five Texas residents named as plaintiffs in the suit. "I think the governor needs to keep his religion out of his official duties."

Perry says that the event's hate group sponsor, the American Family Association, have not yet given him his "marching orders" as to his role during the rally.

American Family Association: The First Amendment Only Applies To Christians

"The First Amendment was written neither to guarantee freedom of religion to Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus nor to prohibit their free exercise of religion. It wasn’t written about them one way or another. It was written for one specific purpose: to protect the free exercise of the Christian religion. We must be clear: the First Amendment does not prohibit the free exercise of alternative religions, but neither does it guarantee it. It simply does not address the issue at all." - American Family Association spokesman and national radio host Bryan Fischer.