It’s an issue that continues to prey upon us.
Tampa City Council begins its meetings with a prayer. Strictly speaking, it must be non-sectarian. Good luck, as council routinely rotates priests, ministers and rabbis. But who’s parsing?
Well, the Atheists of Florida are, and they recently packed council chambers to protest. Apparently they were never really placated by that token invocation by one of their own back in 2004.
They are annoying. But they have a point. The nonsectarian approach is more than nose-thumbing at true believers. It’s also the stuff of recent court opinion. In practice, invocations are religious high-wire acts that threaten to encourage Buddhists, Hindis, Muslims, Confucians, animists, agnostics et al for their share of nominal inclusiveness. Who else might wait in the wings? Practitioners of Scientology? Santeria?
The AF suggests a “moment of reflection” before council meetings, which makes sense. Keeping the “non-sectarian” invocation, unless it’s permanently delivered by poet laureate James Tokley, is to maintain trivializing tokenism. The Deity, let alone the legitimate, mundane business of the people, deserves better than being preceded by an appeasing gimmick.
The Pledge of (“…One nation, under God…”) Allegiance, which begins each meeting, still passes legal muster. Thank God. But, frankly, do we really need to invoke a deity before pondering liquor licenses and sewer repairs?
Indeed, why not a post-pledge, pre-meeting moment to reflect on this city’s priorities and what it really means to take that oath of office?