Face it, prayer has no place in any government establishment

To open official government meetings with a prayer violates 1st Amendment. Now Greece town board is battling 2 residents in a law suit that wants to stop sectarian prayers from being delivered at the opening of each town board meeting.

On July 5th, 1983 the US Supreme Court ruled that a practice of opening each legislative day with a prayer was constitutional stating, “In light of the unambiguous and unbroken history of more than 200 years, there can be no doubt that the practice of opening legislative sessions with prayer has become part of the fabric of our society.” What does it mean? It’s been around for 200 years and that means it is constitutional. Oh really? One would think that Supreme Court justices would be intelligent enough to understand that just because something has been around for some time doesn’t make it constitutional, especially when it’s the 1st Amendment. There’s a reason why it is #1 – they knew it was important so they thought it would make more sense to make it the first thing people read. Moreover, not only it is the first amendment but religion is the first clause in it. Boy, it seems like an important clause. So why did justices ignore it on the basis of “history of more than 200 years”? One can only speculate, but in any case it’s still unconstitutional.

Justices Brennan and Marshall expressed dissenting opinion on this matter, which shows that not everyone in Supreme Court is ignorant, "I now believe that the practice of official invocational prayer, as it exists in Nebraska and most other state legislatures, is unconstitutional. It is contrary to the doctrine as well the underlying purposes of the Establishment Clause, and it is not saved either by its history or by any of the other considerations suggested in the Court's opinion…" Brilliant! Seems like someone paid attention in the law school.

History aside, today the town of Greece is facing similar dilemma. Each town board meeting is opened with a sectarian prayer. In approximately five weeks Judge Siragusa will decide on this case. Both sides said they were ready to appeal, so it will be some time before this case will find resolution. In the meantime, we’ll see if Judge Siragusa paid attention in law school in his Constitution 101 class.

The interesting thing is that town board meetings still begin with a sectarian prayer. Today, August 18th, Pastor Jim Crowley of New Testament Christian Church delivered sectarian prayer ending it with, “… in the name of Jesus.”

What is the purpose of a prayer at the beginning of each meeting anyways? A commenter on Democrat and Chronicle newspaper website said this about this case, “Prayers are meant to humble us and give us wisdom and discernment when making personal decisions or decisions which will affect others.” Sorry, if someone needs a prayer to make a decision without being corrupt that individual is not worthy to be in any public office position. You have to be proactive when you work in public office, you are not representing your own interests but the interests of the people that elected you to that office – Christians, Jews, Muslims, Wiccans, Atheists, everyone. You cannot let your personal beliefs and interests affect your decisions. Yes, humans are very subjective and there will always be some sort of bias in all decisions made. But you cannot let your personal biases make decisions that supposed to represent the best interests of your community.

It all comes down to secular government. Church and state are like water and oil, it doesn’t matter how hard you shake it - it simply doesn’t mix. James Madison was very eloquent about it, “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.”