PRAYER: No place in government

Regarding the City of Coeur d’Alene starting their government sessions with a religious prayer I would like to comment.

The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause has been ruled on many times in various Supreme Court cases regarding separation of church and state. Justice David Souter, writing for the majority in KJV School Dist. v Grumet, 1994, concluded that “government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion.” It does not get any more succinct than that.

So, how can a secular government session to make laws that supposedly apply to all Americans in our pluralistic society begin with something as exclusionary and divisive as a prayer? Our Constitution, the document upon which our government is designed, is 100% secular (with no mention of any deity) by design. It is meant to keep our governing bodies neutral regarding any nature of supernatural belief (or nonbelief). Starting the session with religious grandstanding meant to demonstrate whose flavor of superstition rules the day has nothing to do with secular, reasoned governing.

A moment of silence would serve a secular, fully inclusive purpose at the beginning of any state or federal session which each individual could use to silently observe as they chose.

As a U.S. citizen I expect our laws to be derived in a bipartisan manner from common sense and reason. Save the ‘belief without empirical evidence’ revelations, no matter what flavor, for home and church and keep it out of our tax funded institutions.

JIM HUDLOW

Spokane