A recent letter to the editor (LTE) I authored titled “Discontinue prayer at public meetings” was published in today’s edition of The Times Leader both online and in print.
This letter urges members of Wilkes-Barre City Council to discontinue their tradition of government-led prayer at public meetings, encourages locals to join me in opposition to prayer, and references a recent letter the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent to council which similarly urges a cessation of government-led prayer.
The text of my letter to the editor, slightly modified because of an error [the next council meeting is July 16, 2013 and not July 11], follows:
On June 13, 2013, I addressed Wilkes-Barre City Council objecting to government-led prayer and urging council to remove prayer from government meetings. I detailed why I object to governmental prayer in a follow-up written piece now available on justinvacula.com, was since featured in local media and was most recently backed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) who joined me in my dispute with Wilkes-Barre City Council.
FFRF’s three-page letter argues that government prayers are exclusionary, unnecessary, inappropriate and divisive while noting that council members may pray on their own time rather than during public meetings in which they lend power and prestige to religion in a governmental endorsement which excludes 19% of a nonreligious American population.
FFRF also states that “[t]he state of the law regarding the constitutionality of government-sponsored prayers is unstable,” affirms the secular character and founding of the United States, and notes Jesus’ exaltation — during his Sermon on the Mount address — “do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. … when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen” (Matthew 6:5-6).
The letter’s final paragraph reads, “The solution is simple: discontinue official, government prayers at your meetings. We urge you to concentrate on civil matters and leave religion to the private conscience of each individual. If government meetings must show reverence, let it be for our secular and godless Constitution, which enshrines the greatest American invention — the separation of state and church.”
I will once again address council in its next open meeting including public comment on July 16, 2013. I hope to see local residents at this meeting and encourage them, like me, to prepare five-minute remarks addressing council whether they defiantly continue prayer or remove it from the sessions.
Learn more about my objection to government-led prayer at Wilkes-Barre City Council meetings. Visit the ‘council prayer‘ category on this website and listen to my appearances in local media including television news interviews and talkradio interviews; discussion of the council prayer issue on various podcasts; commentary and reporting; and much more.
Watch the below video, my original objection to council prayer during the July 13 council meeting, and read why I object to prayer in a lengthy piece I authored.
As always, feel free to leave comments below and please join me at the July 16 council meeting in which I will once again object to prayer (or thank council for removing from from public meetings if they select the right action and remove prayer). Prepare statements, bring video recording equipment (or a cell phone), and support my appeal to council.