Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

September 10, 2009

GT County board's prayer is questioned

E-mail writer objects

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY

TRAVERSE CITY -- Commissioner Beth Friend thanks her "Heavenly Father" and asks for His continued guidance in decisions made by Grand Traverse County commissioners.

"We pray in your name, Amen," Friend said as she concluded a prayer to open a recent county board meeting.

A prayer has served as the opener for county board meetings for years -- Commissioner Larry Inman said an invocation has led off board sessions for at least the 17 years he's been in office -- and no one ever questioned that religious offering.

Until now. The county recently received an e-mail whose writer objected to the "Christian prayers."

"Being Jewish ... I am somewhat offended by offering a prayer at the start of your monthly meeting," the e-mail writer said. "I understand that Christianity is the predominant faith in Grand Traverse County, but perhaps government needs to be more sensitive to those of us who do not worship the same power."

Friend said she sees value in the opening prayer.

"Asking a higher being for guidance and compassion for the community and each other, I don't see anything but good coming from that," Friend said.

The e-mail was signed "Emma Goldman," but a search of government databases found no record of an Emma Goldman in Michigan.

But there was a real-life Emma Goldman, an activist and anarchist born in 1869 who promoted a wide range of unpopular and revolutionary political and social issues. She died in 1940.

Inman said it doesn't matter if Goldman is the e-mail writer's real name or a pseudonym. A board committee discussed the writer's comment on Tuesday, and commissioners are interested in broadening the practice.

"Traverse City's a growing and diverse culture and we should all be given the opportunity to express our beliefs," Commissioner Mike Stepka said.

Inman, Friend, and Stepka want the board to consider inviting representatives from all of the community's churches and faiths to share monthly invocation duties.

Not everyone agrees with that idea.

"I'll need to point out to my fellow commissioners to think about how they'll feel when the leader of the local Wiccan coven approaches them to speak," said Commissioner Ross Richardson.

Government-sponsored prayer is a tricky area that's almost impossible to correctly pull off, said Paul Rasor, director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom at Virginia Wesleyan College.

Rasor said federal courts have ruled that opening a meeting with a non-sectarian prayer is acceptable. But words that identify a specific faith or deity, such as Jesus or Allah, violate the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Many people will object to any prayer, while others will object to not including words that express their faith, Rasor said.

The board also can't pick and choose which religions give the invocation.

"You are going to offend a lot of people no matter what you do," Rasor said. "It's permissible, but is it wise?"

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