by
Walter Brasch
For at least 17 years, the officials of Monroeville,
Pa., a 30,000 population Pittsburgh suburb, have recited the Lord’s Prayer
before every council meeting.
This violates the First Amendment. And
it’s not even a gray area. Finally, the ACLU sent the council a letter,
threatening to file a lawsuit.
The response by Bruce Dice, the city
solicitor, was that the council will try its best to abide by the Constitution,
and will make changes. Dice, who has been solicitor since 1998, says government
“should not be sponsoring prayer or direct residents about religion.”
At its Jan. 12 meeting, the Council will
consider an ordinance to have different members of the clergy, representing
different religions, deliver prayers at each meeting. The decision of who will
lead the council and residents in prayer will be on a “first come, first
served” basis, says Dice. There are 25 Christian churches—21 Protestant, two
Roman Catholic, two Serbian Catholic—and two synagogues in Monroeville. Thus,
it is entirely possible that 12 Protestant ministers will be the “first come,
first served” clergy to lead prayer services. The proposed ordinance does not
address religious diversity, but is specific there will be a prayer at the
beginning of every meeting, thus continuing to fuse government and religion.
When the ACLU sent its letter to the
Council, many residents stood firm in their beliefs about Christianity and
prayer at council meetings.
One resident claimed he was offended not
by the Christian prayer, but by the ACLU. A minister claimed, “We’re all tired
of losing rights.”
No one is losing any rights. The right to violate the Constitution does not exist.
One council member said he wouldn’t be
quiet and would continue the practice, much to the applause of many residents,
few of whom read or understand the Constitution.
Mayor Greg Erosenko, who led the prayers, added his voice. Using the terrorist attack
in San Bernardino, he said, “It’s very sad that
we have come to this, taking what happened in California. Not just Monroeville,
but I think our whole country needs a lot of prayer.” He said he
was a devout Christian, and that the nation was founded on the Christian faith.
He’s also wrong. The Founding Fathers were
specific in stating that the nation was not
founded on the Christian faith, that people have a right to their own beliefs,
and that there must be a separation of church and state. Many of the Founding
Fathers—including Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Thomas Paine, whose
pamphlet, Common Sense, was one of
the most important works of journalism that led the charge to independence—were
deists, not Christians.
The Monroeville Council recognizes
reality. A continued violation would have resulted in a federal lawsuit. It would
cost the taxpayers a lot of money—and they would
lose.
If the seven-member Council supports the
proposed ordinance of having a rotation of prayers and religions, the issue is
back into a gray area of separation of church and state, but it does reduce the
dominance of a municipal government supporting one religion.
The only major question is why did it take
a threat from the ACLU for the solicitor and Council to make the change to
abide by the First Amendment to the Constitution?
[Dr.
Brasch is an award-winning journalist who is also professor emeritus of mass
communications from Bloomsburg University, where he taught First Amendment
issues, as well as public affairs reporting, feature writing, and media editing
and production courses. His latest book is Fracking
Pennsylvania.]
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