Bow Your Head

After several years of going through NorCo Council meetings without being stricken by boils, locusts or thunderstorms of hail and fire, the pre-meeting prayer (or moment of silence) has once again begun to rear its ugly head. Now look, I have no problem with bringing in a preacher from any of the counties numerous houses of worship to say a word or two, but County Council is too lazy to reach out Instead, it anoints one of its own to pretend he is a cleric. Up until now, it's just been a moment of silence. I'd actually prefer several hours of that, so that's been no trouble for me. But last week was John Brown's turn. 

"Bow your heads!" he instructed everyone. Amazingly, all but Lamont McClure's three rubber stamps did so. Lori Vargo Heffner even gave an "Amen!"

Yeah, the Supreme Court says its ok for elected officials who take an oath to uphold a secular constitution to open a meeting with prayer. But this same august body is also now interfering with a woman's right to choose. If County Council members want to pray on their own time, have at it. But doing it on the taxpayer dime is inevitably going to lead to preference of one religion over others. 

So far as I can tell, there are no Jews, Muslims, Sikhs or Buddhists on Council. They are all plain vanilla Christians, and one of them is eventually going to start showing preference for his or her religion. 

Better not to start.

Amen. 

NorCo Council Votes For Prayer or Moment of Silence at Meetings

When Ron Angle presided over NorCo Council, I liked his approach to pre-meeting prayer. He would invite clergy from different denominations at every meeting to offer an invocation followed by a brief description of their congregation and what it does in the community. With the help of long-time Clerk Frank Flisser, he snagged preachers of all faiths. From Catholic priests to Buddhist monks, they all came and we were all a little better for it.

Things changed when John Cusick became Council President. Instead of recruiting local clerics, he opted to offer a meaningless secular prayer himself. That's when I stopped standing for pre-meeting prayers. This drew a few side-long glances from others in the audience, but as a blogger, I was already unpopular. 

When Ken Kraft became Council President, he dropped the pre-meeting prayer completely.  Nobody complained. Nobody missed it. 

Until last night, when Council considered adopting rules of order. Council member John Brown, noting that previous versions included a pre-meeting prayer, suggested adding one. Council member Tara Zrinski objected on the basis of the Establishment Clause.  Things went back and forth and Council eventually arrived at a consensus that meetings start with either a prayer or a moment of silence.

I'll still refuse to pray at any public meeting. At the one public meeting Jesus attended - his own frickin' trial - he refused to pray. When elected officials beat themselves on the chest and wear their religion on their sleeves, they remind me of the original virtue signalers - the Pharisees.  Jesus, you may recall, slammed them. "On the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." 

The new Council rules contain a provision that bans Council members from engaging in text messaging with others during meetings unless disclosed as public comment. This is aimed primarily at Council member Tara Zrinski, who has been accused at times of getting marching orders during meetings from the administration. 

Almost all of my text messages during meetings have been aimed at Council members Lori Vargo Heffner and Ron Heckman and that is to advise them when Council members are failing to use their microphones.