I am passing this on from a post on My Left Wing. Sometimes it is hard for those of us who live in NYC to realize how tough it can be for non-Christians in other parts of the nation.

I am reposting the MLW post verbatum, then I will comment.

With permission, I am here (and a lot of other places) attaching a communication from my rabbi about a meeting held with Indiana's Speaker of the House. For anybody who believes this is a nation where people of all religions are to be treated with fairness, equality, and dignity, this should shake you to your very bones.

Please feel free to copy and disseminate widely.

Thank you

For those not familiar with the Indiana prayer issue, here is a Washington Post article. The whole thing blew up when one person offered the House's openening prayer, then led the whole legislative body in a rousing, with standing and clapping, rendition of "Just a Little Talk With Jesus," which many found rather less than non-denominational.

Last Tuesday, the Indianapolis JCRC’s Jewish Lobby Day was held. Around 40 Jews from around the State of Indiana came to Indianapolis to lobby our state senators and representatives on a number of issues.

The day ended with a private meeting with Speaker of the House Bosma meeting our group in the beautiful House chambers. We asked questions about full day kindergarten, about the clinics, and a young member of the delegation asked about providing sexuality education in public schools that is more than abstinence based. He responded to everything we asked. Sometimes we liked what he said and sometimes we didn’t. Speaker Bosma wondered why we hadn’t discussed the controversy surrounding the issue of prayer in House chambers. He told us his version of what happened and what he believes, and a passionate exchange took place. The end of this exchange left us, the Jewish delegation, in shock. Speaker Bosma, defending the prayer issue, asked, “How many Jews are there in Indiana? About 2%? There are at least 80% Christians in Indiana.