Giuliani Favors Graduation Prayer

August 16, 2007

Author: JONATHAN ROOS AND MEGAN HAWKINS

Source: Des Moines Register

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/NEWS09/708160410/-1/BUSINESS04

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani voiced support Wednesday for the inclusion of prayer at school graduation ceremonies - an issue that has been the subject of a number of court battles.

Giuliani, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, discussed the issue with a supporter during a campaign stop in the southwestern Iowa town of Carson.

"Why have we taken God so much out of the country? I think that's kind of a core issue. I would like to see God brought back into it," said Marsha Sternberg of Carson, a chiropractic office receptionist who was among about 40 people at the Wander In Cafe.

Giuliani said there needs to be a balance between constitutional protections against the government establishment of religion and people's right of religious freedom. "It's OK to say a prayer," he said.

Sternberg turned the discussion to the offering of prayers at commencement exercises. Giuliani, a Roman Catholic, said he's given a lot of commencement speeches, although he made no distinction between high school and college ceremonies.

"In most of them there's a prayer - usually a minister or a priest or a rabbi, or sometimes a professor gets up and says a prayer at the beginning of it," he said. "So I wouldn't think that's prohibited."