Earlier this month, during a meeting of the Monte Vista City Council in Colorado, the members discussed adding an invocation to their meetings. As we know, those invocations are legal as long as people of any faith and no faith are allowed to speak. That clearly wasn’t what they had in mind.
Councilor Gary Johnson spoke in favor of the invocations because incorporating Christian mythology would somehow be good for the city.
Johnson added “ It’s been a standard practice through the centuries” and noted it’s practiced at the federal level in the House of Representatives and Senate as well as locally at the Board of County Commissioners meetings and would effectively remind council they “not on our own” in decision making and “It’s time to bring back what belongs in the city.”
“Bring back”? That suggests someone kicked God out… which never happened. And it’s hardly inspiring to know council members feel like they can’t make decisions on their own and need an invisible deity in the room in order to do the work they were elected to do.
Mayor Pro-Tem Victor Sigala also gave a brief speech that belongs in a church more than a government meeting:
“I used to run the streets, vandalize and encouraged my friends to do the same thing… My life changed in 1997, I’m very open about my faith… If you put God first he will set your path straight.“
Or you could just stop being a criminal without believing in supernatural nonsense. It’s not hard.
igala’s speech was irrelevant, if emotional, but it wasn’t as problematic as the push for invocations from First Christian ChurchPastor Wayne Wittner. He’s not on the council, but he told them that they should go ahead and approve the motion because who would really be upset about the prayers?
… Wittner indicated the use of God in a prayer should cover nearly any religion, “You’re not going to offend anyone but the atheists, but God’s been offending the atheists for centuries.”
Read the full story at the Friendly Atheist Blog
