In New York, the town of Greece begins each of its meetings with a prayer. In almost all of those prayers, a circuit court of appeals found that the prayer was Christian and thereby could represent a governmental endorsement of a single religion. Now, the Supreme Court will weigh in on the issue.
For the past thirty years, it has been legal for governments to begin their meetings with a prayer, so long as it isn’t used to advance a single religious point of view. In Greece, it wasn’t until legal action was threatened in 2008 that the list of prayer leaders was expanded to include members of the Baha’I faith, Jewish faith, and a Wiccan Priestess. However, a judge still found that their inclusion amounted to a token and did not overcome the impression of sectarianism.
Read the full story at the Washington Post.