A Federal court has held that under certain circumstances, a city council may have an invocation in conjunction with its public meetings. Before any theocrats get giddy about that, they should read the court's opinion and ask themselves how content they would be with such an arrangement in cities of Alabammer. Excerpt:
"Since the City Council adopted the Invocation Policy: (1) twenty invocations were given by people from Christian denominations, and each included a reference to Jesus or Jesus Christ; (2) four invocations were by a person who identifies as a metaphysicist; (3) one invocation was given by a member of theCalifornia Sikh Council; and (4) one invocation was given by a person from an Islamic congregation. On four occasions no invocation was given because the scheduled speaker cancelled or was absent. No meetings were held on November23, 2010 or December 28, 2010. When counted only from the date of the challenged invocation, April 27, 2010, nine additional invocations included references to Jesus or Jesus Christ and five invocations have not included such references.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6005...bin-v-Lancaster-7-11
Related news item: