"Regarding ...Mayor Bill Knight’s attempts to have prayer at City Council meetings:
First, let me say I am a Christian and that Jesus Christ is my personal savior.
...Government meetings are held to conduct government business.
They are not the proper place for praying to the Almighty,
especially when the form or content of the prayers
would be inconsistent with the beliefs (or nonbeliefs) of some of the attendees,
as they often are.
When I want to pray, and I do so multiple times daily,
I do not need some officer of the government prescribing my prayer.
Our Founding Fathers had the wisdom to know that religious freedom
could not be complete without enforcing the related principle of church-state separation.
That is why the First Amendment protects religious freedom
on the one hand but prohibits governmental establishment of religion on the other.
...in the name of the U.S. Constitution,
I ask that our mayor refrain from introducing sectarian prayers at council meetings..."
Norman B. Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment