Let's respect the intentions of the Constitution

April 25, 2006

SPECTRUM/Paul Morley

It may seem natural for Stan Tucker, a minister who simultaneously serves as Wasilla Planning Commission chairman, to open a public meeting with a prayer. But this is inappropriate.

Religious ideals are a guiding and often positive force in the lives of many here in the Valley. Some people demonstrate their religious convictions publicly. Others choose to do so privately. Still others choose to abstain from religious practice altogether. Every resident of this state and our country has a constitutional right to worship or not to worship as he or she chooses.

In an April 14 article, &#8220Prayer OK, but no Jesus,” reporter Leila Kheiry referenced a letter ACLU attorney Jason Brandeis sent to the Wasilla Planning Commission, which stated that opening public meetings with prayer that invokes or endorses any particular religion is unconstitutional. Kheiry's article went on to report that nothing has changed since that notification. Commissioners have continued to blatantly disregard the constitutional mandate, tacitly endorsing religious activities in public meetings which violate the rights of some members of our community.

Our United States Constitution prohibits government endorsement of religion. This language was included by our founding fathers (many of whom were devoutly religious men) to protect the rights of minority members of our newly formed nation.

They realized that many of the first European settlers of the British colonies in America immigrated to escape religious persecution. Despite their own mainstream religious convictions, they recognized a need to protect not only the rights of dominant portions of a society, but the populace as a whole.

Commission chairman Tucker states that, &#8220God is a reality. He does desire to be an asset for people who ask for it.” Using this statement to justify prayer at a public meeting imposes a personal religious view that not all people share.

A call to sectarian prayer in this context, of any persuasion, has the capacity to alienate people who follow a different spiritual path or who choose not to live according to a religious school of thought. As such, it is more likely to foster divisions rather than to unify people gathered together to perform a collective task.

But this does not seem to concern some members of the commission.

&#8220It's none of anybody's business,” Commissioner Ray McCarthy told Kheiry. &#8220If someone doesn't like it they can get up and walk out any damn time they want.” Such an arrogant statement reveals a darker side of this fervor for prayer - one that is neither patriotic nor Christian. In fact, it is everybody's business, and no one should be placed in a position of feeling alienated to the point where he or she feels a need to fall silent or to vacate the premises.

And didn't Jesus of Nazareth preach love, compassion and peace - a brotherhood of man?

Kheiry's article stated that Thomas Klinkner of the Anchorage firm Birch, Horton, Bittner and Cherot, advised that the commission can pray before meetings but that &#8220the invocation must be nonsectarian and must not be used to proselytize or advance any one faith or belief. In particular, the invocation may not use the name of Jesus Christ or make any other denominational appeal.”

So, are Wasilla police going to cart off people who stubbornly assert sectarian prayer in a public meeting? Not likely. But if commissioners refuse to appropriately guide the way public meetings are opened, it will be the responsibility of the general public to uphold one of our most essential American values. No citizen should violate or remain complacent when someone else violates constitutional separations of church and state.

In the end, if our leaders or the rest of us cannot demonstrate respect for the intentions of our constitution, perhaps prayer in public meetings of any kind should be forgone entirely.

Paul Morley is a Valley resident.