Line in sand could bring lawsuit

Home

Opinions

Editorial

Other Sun Publications

FREE DELIVERY!
Get Free Delivery! Request your Osceola News Gazette Today.

Login Form

2013 Summertime Fun

Osceola Hurricane Handbook 2013

2013 Sexual Predator Sexual Offender List sexualpredatorcover13

Windows on the Classroom June 2013

School Calendar
2012-2013

View our other Special Sections

Line in sand could bring lawsuit

Opinions

Friday, 05 March 2010 09:19

The Osceola County Commission makes it a practice of saying a prayer before its regular meetings.
We’re not going to debate the importance of the separation of church and state as the courts have said prayer is permissible as long as all religions have the same opportunity to participate and that they do so.
Commissioners said county staff has “reached out” to a variety of non-Christian religious leaders but that most have chosen not to come. Well, maybe extra effort is needed. Do nothing and the county could be looking at a lawsuit.
At a commission retreat Feb. 12, County Attorney Jo Thacker told commissioners that she had received notification that “people are watching what we are doing” in terms of the kind of prayers being offered at the start of twice-a-month regular commission meetings and who is offering them.
The group, according to Thacker, is the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which would prefer commissioners not offer any invocation. The group sent a letter to the county in November with its concerns.
What would be so wrong of just asking for a moment of silence before the meeting? Then, if someone would like to pray personally, they could do so. And it would certainly help to avoid any legal challenges.
Commissioner Ken Smith said he doesn’t want to get the county into a legal battle but also doesn’t think that having an invocation is a violation of anyone’s right or a violation of the U.S. Constitution, adding that he was “drawing a line in the sand.” That stand could be setting us up for trouble and appears to put religious beliefs above the good of the county overall. After having to lay off employees because of hard economic times and as we face a revenue drop in the tens of millions of dollars in the next budget, we think it would be wasteful to fight a legal battle.
Thacker advised commissioners that they have several other options that, to us, make sense: Offer a generic prayer, with no references to a specific religion, such as praying to Jesus Christ or make sure that there is variety in terms of who is giving the invocation and the religion represented.