Council Prayer Disputed Longtime Tradition Being Challenged For Lack Of Diversity, On Legal Grounds

Before every Spokane City Council meeting, the council and audience are led in prayer.

The invocation is delivered by a leader of a local house of worship, who is almost always a Christian.

Combined with the Pledge of Allegiance, the invocation adds an element of ceremony to what are occasionally unruly meetings.

But the invocation is being challenged by some who find the idea of a public prayer offensive, unconstitutional and a violation of the city’s stated goal of being a community that welcomes diversity.

Its appropriateness recently was discussed at a meeting of the Spokane Human Rights Commission, and Councilman Steve Eugster said he is troubled by the prayer’s overwhelmingly Christian character.

“Unless we can develop a system or approach that ensures diversity of belief, we should not engage in invocations before meetings,” Eugster said. “If we’re going to have an understanding that we are a community of diversity and respect diversity, we have to do something about this invocation.”

It’s also unconstitutional, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.

“We believe that the Constitution provides for the separation of church and state,” said Doug Honig, the ACLU’s public education director. “It’s not the business of government to sponsor religious devotions, including prayer.”

Whether or not Spokane is violating the U.S. Constitution, which the city attorney disputes, it is alone among large Washington cities in having an invocation prior to council meetings. Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Vancouver and Everett have all done away with their prayers, although Tacoma does have a moment of silence.

Defenders of the invocation, including a number of council members, say it adds a needed element of decorum to the meetings.

“I appreciate the fact that there is an invocation,” said Councilwoman Roberta Greene. “It serves as balancing and a calming effect, sometimes, on those that are there.”

Greene said it was important “that we do spread the invitations to as many religious sects as possible.”

The lineup of clergy members who deliver the invocation is arranged through the City Council offices. While the aim is to have a wide range of faiths represented, it is hampered by the relative scarcity of non-Christian houses of worship in Spokane and by scheduling difficulty.

Although Jewish rabbis and Muslim imams have given the invocation in past years, every prayer this year, Eusgter’s first on the council, has been delivered by a Christian.

Mayor John Talbott agreed with Greene, saying that the prayer helps remind squabbling council members of their purpose.

He also believes it is constitutional.

“America has been a country that has been people praying for years,” Talbott said. “The federal government, in the halls of Congress, starts off with a prayer. It’s been recognized as a tradition in our nation among legislative bodies.”

That’s the position taken by City Attorney Jim Sloane. Sloane prepared a memo to the council in 1998, when the council’s invocation was last challenged by the ACLU.

In his memo, Sloane cited a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the legality of prayers that opened the Nebraska Legislature. The decision was based on the country’s long tradition of prayer before legislative meetings, including the first constitutional convention.

The court held that invoking God prior to a public meeting was not establishing religion but “a tolerable acknowledgment of beliefs widely held among people of this country,” wrote Chief Justice Warren Burger.

Honig of the ACLU, however, points to the Washington state constitution, which contains even firmer language about the separation of church and state.

Although the ACLU has written a letter of concern to the city, the latest question of the invocation came from the Spokane Human Rights Commission, a city advisory board.

Commissioner, Linda Wilson, asked at the June 27 meeting of the commission if the invocation was too specifically Christian.

The commission took no action and has only agreed to discuss the issue further.

Commission chairman Khalil Islam said he believes prayer is a valuable part of public life.

“A lot of people believe in prayer and it’s important to recognize that,” he said. “My personal feeling is that a single faith-based prayer, one that acknowledges one religion, is not a good one for a city to engage in.”

If Spokane wants to be considered a city that welcomes diversity, it has to act like it, Islam said.

“We do want to be viewed as a diverse community but we want it on our terms,” he said.

Islam said that if the commission pursues making a recommendation to the City Council, it will likely do so only after involving considerable public discussion.

Other commission members feel that the invocation is both appropriate and not an issue for the commission.

“It’s a freedom of speech issue, rather than a human rights issue,” said Victor Buksbazen. “I’m very much in favor of it, though.”

The invocation reminds council members that “they are ministers of God, ultimately, and that they should behave themselves like ladies and gentlemen,” Buksbazen said.

Buksbazen said he would support a more generic prayer, so long as there is some recognition of a higher power.

Others say that a generic prayer renders the invocation meaningless.

“If you’re going to invite someone to do an invocation, then there are those who will say you can’t tell them how to pray,” said Councilwoman Greene. “If we’re going to do that, we might as well not do it at all.”

The concept of a city-mandated generic prayer is exactly why the separation of church and state exists, said Honig.

“Government sponsored prayer that gets watered down, that’s something that can weaken religion for everybody,” he said. “It means one is not able to fully articulate one’s religious activities and beliefs.”

Rather than try to find a generic solution, Eugster is in favor of simply abandoning the prayer and sticking with the Pledge of Allegiance to open meetings.

And as for the reference to God in the pledge?

“That is a battle I don’t want to fight,” he said.