BlogWood: MT Archives

City of Tampa prays to Jesus

Today’s Christian sermon from the Tampa City Council will be called an invocation. The speaker will not be allowed to invoke the name of any specific deity, uh, unless that deity happens to be Jesus, ‘cause, like, Jesus is awesome, you know, and anyone who says that they don’t like Jesus is just being a contrary sinner and, besides, they need to be saved anyway.

Heads bowed and Jesus was thanked at the Tampa City Council meeting Thursday - one week after a walkout prompted by an atheist's invocation.

``We're back to the status quo,'' said City Councilman Kevin White, who a week earlier tried to stop atheist Michael Harvey from giving an invocation statement during a time usually reserved for prayer.

White and council members Rose Ferlita and Mary Alvarez left the meeting last week rather than listen to Harvey's call for the board to be governed by history, science and logic instead of prayer.

The Rev. Johnny Wright said it was a force of habit, not a response to the invocation dispute last week, when he specifically mentioned Jesus on Thursday in what was supposed to be a nondenominational prayer.

After praying for wisdom and knowledge, Wright closed by saying, ``in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.''

``I'm just used to saying it. I'm not trying to make a statement,'' said Wright, of First Community Christian Church.

City guidelines call for invocations that use universal, inclusive terms for deity instead of proper names.

Alternatives such as a moment of silence are encouraged.

Though some council members objected to giving atheists a turn, Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena, who is Jewish, said she objected to a ``deity specific'' prayer such as the one Wright used Thursday.

``Here we go again,'' Saul- Sena said.

Oh, he's just used to saying "Jesus," and he forgot where he was. That's okay, then.

Look, last week’s speaker was invited, and he broke no rules while giving the invocation. A huge hubbub ensued when 3 council members walked out rather than allowing themselves to be exposed to the words of a non-believer.

I’m sure that there were many knowing nods and chuckles as Wright “forgot” about the rules which specifically prohibit invoking the name of a specific deity, thus excluding every single non-christian citizen of Tampa.

There’s an easy way to put an end to this silliness: simply stop having prayers before City Council meetings. Yeah, I know they call it an invocation, not a prayer, but the reason that so many twits were up in arms last week was because the atheist speaker did not call to a higher power to assist the council members in their deliberations. In other words, last week’s speaker followed the rules and attempted to present an inclusive and positive statement of hope rather than spewing hateful and exclusionary Christian rhetoric, while this week’s Christian speaker broke the rules by “mistakenly” slipping into denominational prayer.

Email the Tampa City Council and let them know that it’s time to do away with this government approved religious posturing. Tell them to pray on their own dime - the city has no business subsidizing a Thursday morning sermon.

Email John Dingfelder, and thank him for his courageous decision to invite the Atheist speaker to open last week’s meeting.

UPDATE - Here's the email I sent to City Council