Diverse Public Prayers, a Hallmark of America, Should Unite Us, Not Drive Us Apart

Let us pray?

The U.S. Supreme Court is about to consider whether public prayer, offered for more than 200 years by the city council of Greece, N.Y., is unconstitutional. The repercussions will be nationwide – as every city council, school board, public meeting and even Congress awaits to see if they will be barred from asking God’s blessing

Let us pray?

Why the confusion? The opening of sessions of legislative and other deliberative public bodies with prayer is deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country, notes the ACLJ website. “From colonial times through the founding of the Republic and ever since, the practice of legislative prayer has coexisted with the principles of disestablishment and religious freedom. In the very courtrooms in which the United States District Judge and later three Circuit Judges heard and decided this case, the proceedings opened with an announcement that concluded, ‘God save the United States and this Honorable Court.’ The same invocation occurs at all sessions of this Court.”

Let us pray?

“The Rochester suburb’s public prayers are now the focus of a U.S. Supreme Court case that may redefine the legal limits on religious expression at official functions across the country,” writes Stohr. “The case will mark the first time the court has considered prayers by legislatures since it upheld the practice 30 years ago. Two Greece residents have waged a five-year campaign against the prayers, arguing that the town’s board goes beyond what the justices allowed in 1983 and violates the Constitution by endorsing Christianity. “Government should be inclusive,” says Susan Galloway, 51, one of the women challenging the practice. “There are people who don’t believe, and they’re part of this country, too. We all have a right to be part of it and not feel excluded.”