I’m just asking the question. I have never seen the chair (mayor) do the opening prayer before until last night. In Paul’s defense, the pastor that was supposed to do it didn’t show or call (that was weird) and maybe Paul doesn’t know procedure, but a foot soldier said this to me in an email this morning;
I found it very insulting and crossing the line when the new young mayor crossed the secular line by giving the invocation at the meeting. The leader of the event must NEVER cause the subtle inference of mixing religion and government. It is just not done. NEVER.
Well, I wasn’t that offended, but I did think it was strange. In the past city councilors have done the invocation, but never the chair. Maybe Paul should have asked one of them to do it? Either way, I could care less if they do it or not. The deist, Ben Franklin, who created the invocation did it to calm the nerves of the lawmakers before a meeting, it had nothing to do with religion. These days, I don’t think it is working that well anyway. Maybe a 10 second time of silence and deep breaths would go further.