Bubbaworld

As is far too frequently the case, Tulsa City Councilors are discussing how to include prayer in a government function.

Apparently the current crop of councilors, some of whom have been there for years, just discovered that there is no hard-and-fast rules or for that matter any rules on how to kick off city council meetings with a prayer.

And if there is one thing politicians despise it is a lack of complex rules to cover eventualities that should never arise in the official course of their duties.

In light of the Tulsa City Chaplain saying that prayer in the name of Jesus can not occur at city council meetings, councilors perceive a dire need for some rules on praying.

They came up with three possibilities:

(1) This option allows anyone of any recognized faith to pray before the council. The prayer could be to their personal Deity, such as Jesus, Allah or whomever but could not try to recruit new members to join the faith or condemn members of other faiths.

(2) Praying to a neutral higher power, kinda’ a generic covering all bases sorta’ prayer that no one would understand or appreciate.

(3) The tried and true “moment of silence” which really isn’t a prayer in and of itself.

At a meeting Tuesday morning councilors narrowed the list down a bit, eliminating (2) above.

Supposedly they are going to decide on (1) or (3) on Thursday.

City Councilor Jack Henderson asks an interesting question: “If there was a devil worshipper that wanted to get up and pray, how would we deal with that? We need to just be careful that we’re doing it in the right and proper manner”.

The simple solution to Councilor Henderson’s worry is obviously don’t let the “devil worshiper” have the opportunity to appear before the council and since the council will designate a city employee to schedule the official prayer giver for each meeting it should be a simple matter to exclude “undesirables”.

That is until those discriminated against sue in federal court and win because if councilors permit any prayer they must also permit every other type prayer anyone wishes to offer. That is called religious freedom and it is protecting under the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

If the Tulsa City Council insists on including religious functions in official meetings, the only sensible thing to do is to go with the only safe option, the moment of silence. If folks want to pray silently they can, if they want a short nap, fine. If they just want a minute of peace and quite before the meeting, so be it.

Otherwise it may not be long before Councilor Henderson is asking “Who is that guy in a loin cloth and holding a rubber chicken and spear coming through the door?”…

Update:

On January 24, 2008 the Tulsa City Council voted for option (1).

Now, where’s that loin cloth, spear and rubber chicken?