Launching A Campaign Against My City To Stop Prayer Before Council Meetings

I live in Southern, Ohio and the Bible-Belt runs strong through the hills in our community.  I frequent many city council meetings because of the corruption that has been within our tiny city for close to 50 years!

 

I always noticed that they opened the meetings with public prayer and ask that everyone bow their heads while somebody ask for divine understanding and reasoning to what is about to be discussed.  This always did bother me and I never participated in them.

 

But, now!  I'm sick and tired of this bug nutty batshit crazy xian views being jammed down my throat!  As far as I know...I'm the only atheist in my area!  I'm sure thats not true; but we will see when I go to a council meeting and demand that it be taken out of our local governments way of doing business.

 

Any thoughts, suggestions or avenues of attack would be appreciated!  I am very new to being a born-again atheist!

Tags: Church, Seperation, State, and, of

Views: 41

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on June 16, 2012 at 12:17pm

Greets from Northern Ohio!  My suggestion would be to engage the help of the Legal Department of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  They have dealt with this kind of issue multiple times and would doubtless be of considerable support in your efforts.

Do give them a shout ... and very best of luck!

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on June 16, 2012 at 9:28pm

Excellent reply Loren

Permalink Reply by Jeff Dempsey on June 17, 2012 at 1:26am

Loren, thanks for the info with Freedom from Religion Foundation.  I will most certainly contact them.

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on June 16, 2012 at 9:28pm

Wow! This is a HUGE situation to take on by yourself. I would feel very lonely taking a strong stand against prayer in a religious community ... kind of like setting yourself up for a lynching. That said, There are many factors going against you and that you need to armor yourself in preparation. 

1. The Church community has very strong feelings about people who object to their prayers and religious  beliefs; some will be quiet about the objections, others will be angry, and some will be crazy, making stupid threats, call you names, accuse you of all kinds of atrocities. If you have a thin skin and your feelings are hurt easily, you may want to reconsider. 

2. Some will defend the prayers before city council meetings, even if they do not go to church, or even if they are hypocrites and scoundrels. They have no interest in religion but want everything to be the way they always do things, kind of a security blanket in a chaotic world. 

3. Some will agree with you and say nothing. 

4. Some will speak up in your support. 

5. You can gather like minded people to be with you. 

Good luck in your efforts; there are a cloud of like-minded people in the world who agree with you and you are not alone, however, being the only one making the charge can be uncomfortable.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Dempsey on June 17, 2012 at 1:25am

Thank you very much for your support and your knowledge.

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