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July 31, 2013
Texas City To Militant Atheist Group Demanding They Don’t Pray Before Meetings: Go Pound Sand- God Bless Texas!
Texas City Stands up to Atheists Over Prayers at Government Meetings
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) appears to be losing its intimidating touch as it goes about its business of trying to stop people from praying and expressing their faith in public. The atheist group’s latest attack has come against the city council of League City, Texas, which has included prayer by local clergy in its regular government meetings since the early 1960s.
In a July 15 letter to Mayor Tim Paulissen and the League City Council, the FFRF went through its customary paces in attempting to browbeat the city fathers into submission. Appealing to the First Amendment’s supposed “separation of state and church,” the godless group’s staff attorney, Elizabeth Cavell, called the city’s tradition of allowing both local residents and government officials to open the meetings in prayer of “dubious legality,” insisting that such prayers are “unnecessary, inappropriate, and divisive.”
Cavell advised that while government officials “are free to pray privately or to worship on their own time in their own way,” they “do not need to worship on taxpayers’ time.” Cavell complained that inviting council members and locals to offer invocations at the government meetings “is coercive and beyond the authority of any government.”
While citing a selection of court cases to buttress the FFRF’s case against public prayer, Cavell conceded that there is no clear precedent for her group to demand that the city end its tradition, since courts have issued conflicting opinions that make the legal landscape on the issue “unstable.” The only warning she could muster was that prayer at government meetings “continues to be litigated, divisive, and problematic for local governments across the nation precisely because of this instability.”
She dubiously suggested that the “best course” for the city would be “to halt the prayers. If you wish to pray prior to the meeting, do so on your own time in your own way — do not make it part of the secular business of your local government.”
As it happened, Mayor Paulissen and the city council appeared to be disinclined to follow the FFRF’s self-serving advice. Paulissen told the Houston Chronicle that he and the other city fathers had no plans to drop the 52-year tradition of opening council meetings with an invocation.
Wild Thing's comment..............
Thank you Texas, so many cities do not stand up to those trying to do this.
Posted by Wild Thing at July 31, 2013 12:55 AM
Comments
Finally, some elected leaders with kahonas to stand up to these idiots.
Posted by: BobF at July 31, 2013 09:18 AM
I've got nothing against atheists. I hate the radical ones those. Same thing with gays, feminists, minorities, etc. Radicals of any persuassion are obnoxious pains in the ass.
Atheists don't get far in Texas as Texas is definitely a Bible Belt state.
Posted by: TomR,armed in Texas at July 31, 2013 12:32 PM
