Racine City Council and Prayer

December 4, 2008

Article by Stephanie Brien: City Council will wait on Prayer Decision

The city I live in is going to vote on the issue of praying before city council meetings, apparently the vote has been postponed until next year. An alderman by the name of Jim Kaplan has proposed the council say a prayer or have a moment of silence prior to start of every city council meeting. It appears there is already a split, as some alderman have come out against praying before each meeting.

“9th District Alderman Terry McCarthy said religion should be kept private and said they should leave the meetings the way they are.”

Although I agree religion is a private matter, one could argue this prayer or “moment of silence” to be used as a way for some people to prepare for the meeting. The problem I have is, why implement this as a part of the council meeting when you are more than welcome to take a moment of silence or pray on your own?

The Jim Kaplan argument is; “Kaplan has watched the way that Congress has conducted a prayer and he believes a moment of reflection is a good thing for the City Council. “If it’s good enough for both houses of Congress … then I don’t see why we should be any different,” Kaplan said.”

Here is the problem with this argument Jim, this assumes there is a connection bewteen a “good thing” and the houses of Congress. Furthermore, this assumes what the houses practice is actually the right thing to do. I know from personal experience, and suspect you have to, the houses of Congress are often far from right. And more often than not, they are far from representative of the People.

Personally, I like a moment of silence from time to time. I’m agnostic, so praying is not really my thing, but I know it is for others. I certainly would not want to take prayer away from those who feel it enlightens them or serves a purpose in their lives. However, is there not a short period of time prior to your city council meetings in which you could say a few words to yourself, or whomever it is you pray to? Why impose extra time on what I can only assume is a very tight schedule for the city council - considering all the things wrong with our city, I hope the time is used wisely to address really important issues taxing our city-folk.