Help Them, Jesus (Or Whoever)

Ruling in a case out of Greece, NY, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, decided that it’s OK for legislative bodies to have their sessions introduced with a prayer. The use of an invocation does not conflict with the doctrine of separation of church and state, the court said, because it does not coerce anyone into following a faith.

So how does a city council, for example, deal with a decision like this? Well, nobody is holding a gun to legislators’ heads here – if they go without an invocation now, there’s no reason they have to start. But if they do decide to adopt this, is there a fair way to do it?

In one town I worked in as a reporter, I covered city council meetings, and the council’s practice back in the day was to invite a different member of the clergy to open the meetings with a religious message. Priests, rabbis, and ministers appeared in rotation.

This particular town did not have an imam, at least one who represented any sizable congregation. I can’t wait to see what happens if a city council in some town invites an imam to open their meeting with citations from the Qu’ran. I’d like to be there to see how the conservative prayer boosters react to that one.

And don’t forget the less-established U.S. religions or practitioners of spiritualism. Will a Buddhist monk clothed in saffron bring a prayer wheel? Will a witch show up, cauldron and all? Will the New Ager hand out pyramid hats for the council to wear as the meeting begins?

And how about agnostics --  “May God be with you….I guess…”  Then there are atheists, who probably won’t be able to go much beyond “Good luck!”

How about making it the mayor’s job to pick out a different citation each week, read it, and afterward ask the audience to guess where it came from? That might be fun.

Look, I actually like the concept of opening a public meeting with an invocation – it sets a nice tone. But does it work? Are meetings opened with prayer any less contentious than those that aren’t? Are the decisions made by public bodies any wiser? You be the judge.