Give an Inch...

Now I'm getting really hot under the collar. A lot of people are fulminating about how God didn't protect the children of Newtown because, "He isn't allowed in public schools."
There are so many fallacies wrapped up in this one simple statement, it's hard to know where to begin. Blaming the victims, a 'God of the gaps' logic, ignoring the fact that the victims involved were undoubtedly Christian, etc. But what burns my butt the most about this statement is the clear direction it faces. It, and the people who utter it, ultimately want to subsume the entire fabric of this country under the dominance of Judeo-Christian thinking.
Let's face it; Christians, especially fundamentalist Baptist-types, always find something to complain about. Okay, fine; let's assume that prayer is officially endorsed in public schools (children are allowed to pray in school, it should be noted. Just not officially promoted). What would happen? There would be another shooting massacre, of course, because guns are awash everywhere in this country, while services for mental illness are not. Then what would the bible-thumpers say? "Well, obviously it's because not everyone in the school believed in Jesus. If those children had been converted, this would never have happened."
This kind of logic can go on and on, because there really is no end-point with it, except that everyone is baptized Christian, the government scraps the Constitution and endorses theocracy, and the USA as it is now ceases to exist, along with minority rights. Does anyone seriously think that if official school prayer is endorsed, that Christians would stop harping about the "lack of God" in this country? In this, the most religious country in the Western industrialized world?
If you follow this logic to its end, then to be safe, we'd all have to be praying all the time everywhere. Do people pray on the freeway? If not, better watch out; God won't be there and then you're bound to have an accident. On the job? Let's hope your surgeon prays in the operating theater, otherwise, you're not going to make it. Eventually, the argument brings itself to reductio ad abdsurdum.
So please, let's avoid blaming the victims here along with trying to promote our political strategies. The best thing is to bow one's head in mourning, in sympathy, and say nothing at all. However, if you're so inclined and you really want to pray, you can do as Jesus instructed, "...when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private."