Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Ken Starr
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Ken Starr
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Ken Starr (raw footage form interview of lawyer Kenneth Starr)
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Ken Starr
Kenneth (Ken) Starr is asked if it's ok for President's to use the phrase "God Bless the United States of America" at the end of speeches, Starr responds by saying "President's frequently will invoke God including in the ending of speeches, "God Bless America", "May God Bless the United States" and so forth, it's doubly ok. First, it's an exercise of that President's or public officials freedom of speech, he has the right to say what he thinks." Continues with remarks "It's also not atypically an exercise of that persons own set of faith, beliefs that the person does believe. As Mr. Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln) came to believe that the fortunes of the country and certainly the direction of the great Civil War were in the hands of providence. He said this so clearly in the second Inaugural address just weeks before his own assassination. So too, Dwight Eisenhower came to the view that providence was moving in the affairs of man, in terms of the day that he selected for the Invasion of Normandy. People who have these might burdens placed upon them, tend not surprisingly to come to that view that's familiar, there's no atheists in fox holes."
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Ken Starr
Kenneth (Ken) Starr is asked what did Abraham Lincoln mean by "the better angels of our nature"? Mr. Ken Starr says "When Mr. Lincoln referred to "the better and higher angels of our nature", he was I think recognizing something based in theology. That man is fundamentally a combination of good and evil and may in fact be, this sounds Calvinist fundamentally bad by virtue of the fall in Christian theology and Judaic theology. And yet there is within man the spark of the divine, and I think it was a theological reference."
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Ken Starr
Kenneth (Ken) Starr speaks about the establishment of "under god" in the pledge of allegiance and then speaks about his current case related to the "pledge of allegiance".
Flash Points USA III - God & Country - Ken Starr
Kenneth Starr states "I think the issue of prayer in school is extraordinarily sensitive and can not be answered in a simple yes or no. The reason is this, first I do not think that the state, the government should be in the business of directing people one way or the other, of leading children in prayer and the like in terms of what is the appropriate role of the state. My concern is that we have while protecting that and certainly we have and that's well established, I think we've gone too far on the other side and we're seeking to irradiate religious expressions. Student's who want to come together voluntarily, and form bible study groups and so forth, happily Congress has stepped in and commanded school boards to stop doing that, and this again brought together liberals and conservatives and moderates to say, allow people including in public schools to be individuals of liberty, if they want to have a chess club that's fine, if they want to have a bible study club, that's great too, don't stand in the way of doing that. And I'm fearful that's where the great battle line is. Can there be religious expression and activity in the public schools, yes. Should the state be in the business of directing, commanding and coercing individuals with respect to prayer events, no."