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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, March 21, 2016

Fr. Cusick's Pre-Meeting Prayer - "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"



I find it more than a little ironic that the biggest proponent of pre-meeting prayers, Council President John Cusick, is someone who never practices what he preaches. Father John is in the driver's seat now, as he was once before, purely as a result of stabbing another Council member in the back. He's no role model, but insists on leading Council with a prayer before meetings while another Council member, Mat Benol, hangs his personal copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall behind his desk. This injection of religion into government needs to stop.

Contrary to what a few local elected officials like Cusick seem to think, theocracies are barred in this country by the Establishment Clause in the Constitution's First Amendment. Pennsylvania's Constitution goes even further:
[N]o man can of right be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent; no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience, and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship.
Now Northampton County has no policy concerning pre-meeting prayers. They came into vogue when Ron Angle was elected President. His practice, which was actually the consensus of Council, was to invite church leaders from throughout the community to deliver an invocation, after which they were encouraged to share a little bit of information about their church.

Because most of the religious communities in Northampton are Christian, those clerics dominated meetings. But Angle also brought in rabbis and, on one occasion, a Buddhist.

Though Angle had no way of knowing this, the approach he took was precisely what the United States Supreme Court would sanction in its 2014 decision in Greece v. Galloway. Pre-meeting prayers, even those that refer to specific religions, pass constitutional muster so long as the following four factors exist:
1. Local clergy are invited to deliver the prayer (elected officials should be discouraged from delivering the prayers themselves).
2. Citizens are never compelled to participate in the prayer.
3. The prayers never demean other religions, threaten Hell or seek converts.
4. There must be opportunity for a would-be prayer giver of any religious persuasion.
When Cusick engineered Angle's ouster as Council President, he took over the pre-meeting prayers himself. He became the Alpha and the Omega, the  voice of the Almighty, and clerics of different faiths were no longer invited.

Once Cusick was gone, Peg Ferraro reverted to the practice of inviting clerics from different area churches. But now that Cusick has managed to remove her as Council President, he has taken it upon himself, once again, to be the Prophet, the burning bush.

On January 7,  he decided on his own to command us all to "bow our heads" to the "Heavenly Father" On January 21, he invoked the "Heavenly Father." again. On February 4, we were commanded to "rise for the Prayer" to - guess who? - the "Heavenly Father."

After I begam to complain, Cusicj decided unilaterally on February 18 to tone things down a tad with a "silent prayer" for the happy repose of the soul of Antonin Scalia. On March 3, it was once again a "silent prayer" followed by an "Amen.".

There is nothing even remotely uplifting about listening to an anal algebra teacher pretend he's religious.

But his prayer on March 17  takes the cake. Please rise for the prayer. May the thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks.... When Irish eyes are smilin', 'tis like a morn' in Spring."

He took the lyrics of an Irish drinking song - and all Irish songs are drinking songs - and turned it into a frickin' prayer. He did so with a smirk on his face, revealing what I already know - he's a phony who had to have offended anyone with religious sensibilities with what amounted to a taunt, not a prayer.

I don't know what is more amazing - the fact that he is pulling off this nonsense or the fact that everyone in that room is willing to put up with it.

Below is an email I'm firing off to all members of Council:

Since his installment as President, John Cusick has taken it upon himself to deliver what what some might call a prayer at the start of each meeting. So far as I know, Council has no policy concerning prayer and Cusick is therefore exceeding his authority as Council President by unilaterally imposing his own religious beliefs upon everyone else.

The purpose of this email is to demand that Cusick cease his ultra vires practice until Council votes on a policy that comports with the Supreme Court's 2014 decision in Greece v. Galloway. That decision is one in which clergy from the community is invited to lead everyone in prayer, and no one is ever even mildly coerced into participation. 

The Greece v. Galloway decision also requires you to give the opportunity to would-be prayer givers of any religious persuasion. So if you insist on kicking off each meeting with a prayer,  please be advised that I demand  the opportunity to present representatives of the Church of Satan, Lehigh Valley Humanists, Circle of Ancient Paths Coven and the Lehigh Valley Network of Unified Pagans at your next several meetings. 

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a cry baby you are. Your just pissed that Cusick is a better man than your puppet master and will provide strong leadership in spite of the foolishness of other council members.

Anonymous said...

We agree with Bernie here, Prayer has no place at these meetings and that ten commandment sign must be removed from the publics wall

Anonymous said...

Religion and politics don't mix! Get back to open, honest government business already!

Anonymous said...

Bernie,
You have forgotten one important collective, LCCC and there soul sale sector subsects sets, Church on The Runs, teams,elder abuse, child abuse and the many indigents they claim to protect and serve ofcourse for the Lord God and Jesus Christ¿ If one redd there bylaws that are hidden in the bowells of hell in untouchable archives, the heading of service to do diservice which FBI defendant only stated by a number you call it FedEd¿

This falls under the home school law in which was stated there is a better chance to make a snowball in hell than to get in this collusionary dillusinary facked facts and data preached to the public as some sort of religious circus beliefs¿
redd for registered independant Republican
patent pending

Anonymous said...

Cusick's reply: Piss off O'Hare!

Anonymous said...


Cusick is the phony prophet of the Tea Party church of extremism in government. Enough already !Total BS passed off as a moment of thoughtfulness. Get a life!

Bernie O'Hare said...

9:01 is the reply of an anonymous coward who obviously does not follow the Ten Commandments and is incapable of honesty. If Cusick allows prayers to continue, he is going to have to allow the Satanists, Pagans, Wiccans and Druids in there. I'm getting the wicker baskets ready.

Anonymous said...

What short memories we have. Many of your readers are too young to remember Reverend Ralph Hartzell. This was back in the years 1981 thru 1984 when he served as Northampton County Council President. Prayers before the council meetings were a regular thing with each member of Council getting a turn to lead off the meeting with heads bowed and everyone took their turn. You could have a moment of silence or pray for guidance from above (which usually was the case). This was before the days of Ron Angle or John Cusick.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't surprise me that anything to do with The Lord scares the hell out of you Bernie.. Our country was built on Judeo Christian

Values. As we have moved away from them, our government has gone to hell. And so has your blog,lol.

Boy, I have missed you Bernie. It's good to be back! I've heard you are starring in the movie "the Screwtape Letters". The book was written by CS Lewis..

Perfect casting, for you, as wormwood... God Bless

Bernie O'Hare said...

9:25, I have no recollection of prayers at that time, but defer to you. The reality is that there is no prayer policy, and Cusick has taken it upon himself to kick off every meeting with nonsense he shoves down everyone's throats.

Bernie O'Hare said...

9:25, aka Jim Gregory, I find nothing more revolting as an argument to say that the law must be so because it was that way during the time of Henry IV. But as is usual, you are dead wrong.

Benjamin Franklin:"When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and when, it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."

Treaty of Tripoli (1792): (negotiated by George Washington and signed by John Adams): "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian
religion,- as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen …it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

James Madison (Father of the Constitution): "The settled opinion here is that religion is essentially distinct from Civil Government, and exempt from its cognizance; that a connexion between them is injurious to both ... ."

Thomas Jefferson: "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

***

"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

And so on.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Washington, Madison, and Jefferson were opposed to religious incursions in government because it may have interfered with their devotion to holding black souls as subhuman slaves and not permitting women to vote. Holding those truths as self evident is easier to reconcile when one pretends God is not looking.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Without question, the thinking of the Founding Fathers was in many respects hypocritical. Jefferson in particular. But aren't we all products of our times?

Anonymous said...

Agreed. But shouldn't Woodrow Wilson have known better in 1913, when he re-segregated the military and the federal workforce? It's remarkable that a local borough and school district still bear the name of one the most notorious bigots in US history. Wilson makes David Duke look like an agent of the Underground Railroad.

Anonymous said...

Bernie,
Yes in fact we are all a product of the times, too tolerant of the worlds and even our own nations illbehaviors incubated¿ Those that publicly profess to be of the religious types are the truely hipocrites, ones faith and beliefs are of a personal matter in theZe times¿!)$
What is redd is not nessasarly ones OWN perswasion when exerciZing a mans main mussel
redd independant Republican
patent pending

Bernie O'Hare said...

If you expect me to defend Wilson bc he was s Dem, you are mistaken. He was more than a product of his times and was an active bigotry. Wilson should certainly consider re-naming itself.

Jim G said...

Franklin and Jefferson were deists who used the bible when it served their purposes. Even separation of church and state

Was set up to keep the state out of religion, not vice versa......most of the founding fathers were Christians. Many of our prestigious

Institutions, Harvard and Princeton were set up by Christians to be Christian institutions. They've gone to hell since. No shocker there.

And yes 925 was me. I tried and failed to sign on with my name so, like you many times, I used the anon. I was never fond of Cusick, but

Since he prays and you don't like him, my guess is that I misunderstood him,lol. God Bless Bernie. Seriously, I missed you.

As I'd said before, you helped keep me alive,lol....

Anonymous said...

Cusick is wrong. He is creating a policy out of whole cloth to suit himself and it has nothing to do with the business at hand which is the peoples business he and others were elected to do..not spout religious opinions in the face of the electorate. It is an insult to many of us and it tramples the US Constitution.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Jim Gregory, Despite your false assertion, I never post anonymously as you just admitted you do.

Harvard was founded before this country by the Puritans. I leave it to others to decide whether those witch burners were Christians. Princeton was set up by Calvinists, and before this country was formed. What these colleges have to do with our founding fathers or the separation clause is a mystery to me.

Franklin was a Deist - he did not subscribe to principles of Christianity, but believed in God and His Sovereignty. Jeffersoin rejected the divinity of Christ,m but was no atheist. Both were profound thinkers. Neither "used the bible when it served their purposes." That kind of manipulative behavior is more common in people like you, as Judge Zito so aptly observed when he sent you away.

Anonymous said...

What is with all the Wilson hate? I realized he was the latest target of the hate patrol of the teabaggers a few months ago, when out of nowhere my rightwing whacko buddy went on and on about him. He never mentioned him before, just Obama and Carter and LBJ. Apparently Fox history(?) book writers and hate radio have found another Dem to vilify.

Let me say this Wilson being and raised in South Carolina was indeed a racist. He was a product of his times and environment. Like just about every person in government he did not believe blacks were the equal to whites. He accepted they were legally equal but not naturally equal. This was also the view of many like Lincoln and even some other Republicans, gasp! As to segregating the armed forces, please do your due diligence. The black army units never truly integrated with whites until President Truman, a Democrat, ordered it. Check out the Tilden deal in which northern Republicans cut a deal with southern Democrats to finally kill reconstruction and pretty much pull out all federal forces from the south and let the former slaves fend for themselves. It may be to much real history for you to absorb but give it a try.

Real history is not Republican or Democrat, it is just history. Sorry!

Bernie O'Hare said...

And you don't know it. He actively worked against people of color. He also lied about it. He snubbed Ho Chi Minh, mostly bc he was not white. He did re-segregate the federal workforce and the military. He detested Italians ("men of thelowest class") as well as Hungarians and the Polish. He was once taken to task for his bigotry by a black leader, and told the guy, "Your tone, sir, offends me."

Anonymous said...

Wow Bernie! I think anon 5:02 gave a pretty good analysis of Presidential history. Cherry picking good and bad presidents to fulfill your political agenda is silly. Our national history started with slavery and still bears the scars of institutional racism. It is one of the inheritances of our dear Anglo-Protestant birth.
Just about every President can be called out for some racism if you really want to get into it. The idea that somehow only those of one party are bad or good is nonsense. It betrays a very narrow uneducated mind.

LD

Jerry Seyfried said...

9:25 recollection of Council Meetings in the early 1980's is correct. There was an unofficial agreement that we would say prayers before the meeting started. Each Council person would start off the meeting with any prayer he or she chose. Most would ask for "divine intervention" and "Guidance", and also safety for our troops and a number of other blessings. I took my turn just like the rest. Remember, we are the generation that "Stood Up" and opened every school day with the "Lord's Prayer, put our hand over our heart and "Pledged our Allegiance to the Flag and the United States of America" and we did it every school day for 16 years. We saw nothing wrong with that introduction to the school day.
Jerry Seyfried

Bernie O'Hare said...

Jerry, I don't like elected officials leading everyone in prayer. It has no lace in a governmental setting. But I would not raise a fuss over something in which all nine members of Council rotated. i do have a problem when the President takes it upon himself, without consensus of Council, to become the voice of God. I do resent it when he abandons the practice that was specifically endorsed by the Supreme Court, i.e. extending invitations to churches from the community.

Anonymous said...

Actually if you could read you'd see many statements by Jefferson and Franklin acting as if there was a Sovereign personal God.

A deist does not do that.. As far as Zito goes, that man is a disgrace to Common Pleas Court.. He shouldn't even be a senior judge.

He has never put the time in from what numerous lawyers say. All six lawyers involved in Gregory's case said Zito's sentence was lunacy.

One, I've heard said he deserves to be strung up for what he did. He's a sick old man.. I'm sure he will be rewarded for his works.

For his sake, I hope he's a deist. Then he won't see what's in store for the harm he has done.. He's lucky Gregory is a Christian

And has forgiven him....Genesis 50, 20. In case you didn't know the verse,lol.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Gregory, this post is about pre-meeting prayer, not your nonsense. If you want to write about that, start your own blog. I am not tolerating your crap here. And leave the cocktail eaitresses at the Sands alone. There have already been complaints.

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Anonymous said...

You are absolutely nuts. Gregory was with me when he spoke to the father of the waitress. That's been settled. Someone, I wonder who,

Called the father up saying he wanted to know where to deliver flowers. The father called back the next day and discovered the shop was

Closed at that time. No one called. So despite your attempts to make it appear that Gregory has anything to do with that waitress you need to speak with her dad.

Gregory already did. Good luck trying to frame him...this time...

Bernie O'Hare said...

Tell it to the police.

Anonymous said...

Good call, Bernie.

There is zero reason to open a government meeting with a prayer at all. I don't think any other government body in the Lehigh Valley does so.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Bethlehem and Allentown do. Allentown rotates among Council members and Bethlehem invites clergy, and has actually invited the LV Humanists.

Anonymous said...

Bernie, you can't change a brick wall. Apparently you are right about the waitress deal. Apparently he is hanging out with Schlener and we all know his history. I doubt this will end well for Gregory and he will be back in the slammer before music fest.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Schlener is doing quite well and might actually be a positive influence. Gregory needs to stay away from (1) Mezzacappa, (2) young cocktail waitresses, (3) blogs and (4) Facebook.

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Ima Christian said...

I've heard Gregory goes to a fight club at Club Vida on Thursday nights at 7:00 pm. It's led by a liberty Vice principal,

Mr.T. It's open to everyone..Gets some balls and stop up OHare.. I'm sure he'd be glad to see you...Or like before, are you going to hide

Under women's skirts and let them fight for you....

Anonymous said...

With all the problems in our community and the world, a prayer never hurts. Why wait until something happens to have community prayer vigils. No council member is hurting anyone with the prayer or Commandments. There are bigger issues facing our county.

Bernie O'Hare said...

" No council member is hurting anyone with the prayer or Commandments."

Actually, they are. There is an element of coercion. That is the very reason why they are unconstitutional inder mst circumstances.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Gregory @ 5:43, The brave person is the one who fights with his brain, nit his fists. The brae person is the one who does not beat up women or harass cocktail waitresses at the Sands. The brave person does not demean women by talking about hiding behind their skirts. You know nothing about courage. You only know how to bully.

Tom Jeff said...
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Bernie O'Hare said...

Gregory, I am now just deleting your crazy rants.

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Chachi said...

Again, stop by the fight club. The guy that runs it coached a midget football team.

He mentioned you regarding your alleged grandson. Not good Bernie..Stop by Thursday and see Gregory and Nick T.

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Bernie O'Hare said...

Gregory, See my comment above.

Jimmy G said...

Bernie,

Again, thanks for saving my life. I missed you so much....God Bless.......Go Cusick....

Only you could turn a gracious prayer into a firestorm...Bet The Lord can't wait to see you....Hopefully sooner than later..

Anonymous said...

Its Gods job to judge the terrorists, Its the marines mission to arrange the meeting. I think that is Gregory's feeling about you Bernie..

Bernie O'Hare said...

Gregory, This post published on Monday, and you are still banging away, three days later. The only ones reading this nonsense at this point is you and me. You went completely off topic, in your typical rude style, and tried to make this about me, and now are making implied threats. Anonymously, of course, bc you are a coward as is the case with women beaters. I told you these threats are what you're reduced to bc you're incapable of arguing factually. Do yourselfa favor and stay off the blogs. You are just digging your own hole.

Anonymous said...

I love you Bernie..Thanks for saving my life...God Bless!

Not implied threats....Fairly obvious. Christians dont threaten. No need to

Anonymous said...

And thanks you so much for the disgusting women beating comments. I can litigate that issue in a LIBEL suit. Good luck finding these beaten women. I plan to come with a polygraph, will they? Bet's are they will not show up.

As far as the waitress goes, Rybak explained to Morganelli, again, that his slander was, as usual, not supported by facts. And this guy wants to be Attorney General???

Shapiro for AG!

Bernie O'Hare said...

It is now Saturday and Gregory is still braying away. A Christian who lacks the honesty to say who he is is no Christian, but a coward. Exactly the kind of person who beats women. You will sign ur name or be deleted. I am delighted and am sure Morganelli is delighted he does not have the support of a liar and woman beater. Since Shapiro lacks integrity, it stands to reason you'd back that phony. But he does not know who you are and will certainly keep miles away from you, just like Rendell did. Go away.

Harvey said...
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Jim Gregory said...

Bernie,

You know nothing of Christians and little about honesty....The Fight club Bible study is at Club Vida every Thursday night at 7 pm.

You followed midget football , so you know Nick T, the Liberty Vice Principal, who runs it. You call yourself a journalist..Feel free

To stop by and do a story. Because they are Christians, you might even be welcomed...Imagine that..A change for you, I'd bet!

God Bless! Happy Easter.

Bernie O'Hare said...

It is now the Saturday following the Monday that this post published. But Gregory is so obsessed that I am still getting comments from him, and got two today. One is from "Harvey" and has been deleted because, as I warned Gregory, I won't publish anything for which he refuses to accept responsibility.

The other comment is the woman beater's attempt to pretend he's relevant by falsely portraying himself as a religious person. If that were true, he's be seeking no interview and would let his good work be its own regard. But he is a false prophet as well as a woman beater.

God bless! Happy Easter!

Jimmy g. said...

Thank you Bernie. You never change. Once a coward , always a coward.

Again, thanks for saving my life. Every time I got depressed and looked in a mirror and saw I wasn't you, I thanked God..

You know about as much about prophets as you know about the truth.

Bernie O'Hare said...

It is now seven days later and Gregory is still pecking away, hoping to be noticed. Some Christian.

Bernie O'Hare said...

I just deleted two gregory comments, made seven days after this post published. Unless you sign your name fully and take responsibility for your rants, I am deleting you. I made that clear. If you want to be a good christian, try a little honesty for once in your life.