Darrell Laurant: Officials wrong on prayer

“Potholes have no politics,” Lynchburg City Council member Joan MacCallum once said, her contribution to the argument that national-style partisan issues are largely irrelevant to local government.

Now, it seems time to update that comment to fit the current flap in Pittsylvania County. Potholes have no religion, either.

Nevertheless, it seems everyone involved in the current controversy over Christian prayers at Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors’ meetings is milking their moment in the spotlight. Posturing is the order of the day.

“We’re going to have a minority tell us we can’t pray?” asked board chairman Tim Barber. “If they want to challenge it in court, I say challenge it in court.”

“They’re asking me not to practice my faith as a Christian,” added supervisor Fred Ingram. “I have a real problem with that.”

And on the other side, Rebecca Glenberg of the American Civil Liberties Union has argued the plaintiff, a woman identified only as Jane Doe, has been done “irreparable damage” by being forced to listen to the prayer when she comes to meetings, as she has apparently done each week since 2008.

She must be a glutton for punishment.

The complaint filed by the ACLU cites one 2010 prayer that said, in part: “God, without you, and without Jesus, there would be no life on earth, and we would not be able to sit down and express our Christian values before the good people of Pittsylvania County.”

I don’t know about “irreparable damage,” but I would have issues with that particular prayer – not in church, but in a governmental setting. Were Barber, Ingram and the other supervisors elected to express their Christian values, or to run the county? I’d vote for the latter. Otherwise, they would have been better off entering the ministry.

Certainly, no one is telling Fred Ingram he can’t include Jesus when he says grace at dinner. Or that he couldn’t, if he so desired, share his faith with passersby by from the vantage point of a Chatham soap box.

The problem is, the whole idea of America is that it is a diverse society. That’s why many of our ancestors came here. But Barber’s remark about “a minority” is telling — is he saying the majority should be able to determine how everyone should worship?

The precepts of Jesus as expressed in the New Testament certainly point the way toward a more peaceful and equitable society. What many Christians have a hard time accepting, though, is millions of other people give equal weight to the teachings of Muhammad, or Buddha, or a host of others.

Jane Doe may be overreacting, but she has a point. It’s a little like when the Rev. Jerry Falwell would proclaim from the pulpit on the Sunday before an election: “I can’t tell you who to vote for, but I’m voting for ...” When this comes right on the heels of a sermon, things get confused. And when an action by the Pittsylvania supervisors follows on the heels of a prayer, what’s that saying? This decision was divinely inspired?

Now that the Pittsylvania board members have stood up and proclaimed their Christianity, no one is going to mistake them for anything else. So what’s wrong with a non-sectarian prayer addressed to a Supreme Being?

Or, for that matter, why do we need a prayer at all?