The Hollowness of Public Prayer

Last updated on: May 19, 2014 at 10:37 pm by Guest Contributor

The Hollowness of Public Prayer 2014-05-19T22:37:00-05:00 Guest Contributor

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There is much to criticize in the recent Supreme Court decision on prayer at public meetings in the case regarding the town of Greece, New York. The decision found such prayer acceptable because it was merely “ceremonial.” Even such ceremonial prayers, in my opinion, do clearly violate the principle that government shall not endorse religion in general, or a religion in particular. Permitting prayer at such public gatherings disenfranchises those who come before them to do public business who may have no religion or a different religion from the one being invoked by the prayer.

Some have regarded the decision as a “victory” for prayer and for what Katherine Stewart has called the prayer lobby. But if it is a victory, it is a very hollow one. For persons in the theistic traditions, who still think prayer is a substantive discourse between those praying and the God to whom their prayer is addressed; saving prayer in public gatherings only if they are ceremonial is not really saving prayer at all. Prayer is a solemn event in the believer’s relationship with God. It opens up a channel between the believers and the God who they believe is powerful enough to respond by divine action of some sort to the ones who are praying. Prayer, for most sincere theists, is not simply ceremonial or a substantively empty symbolic addendum to a secular agenda.

The Greece decision is of a piece with the Court’s 1984 decision in Lynch v. Donnelly. In that case, the Court permitted a Christian crèche to be displayed on town property in Pawtucket, RI. It said that the once overtly Christian symbols that had given rise to the display of the crèche had become merely “passive” because they were in service to a higher secular end (promoting business in downtown Pawtucket). In both Lynch v. Donnelly and Town of Greece v. Galloway the prayers and the symbols of Christianity were deemed to be so inoffensive and secularized that their essential meaning had been eradicated and they could be reduced to meaningless ceremonial fluff. If that is true, then Christians who take their prayers seriously when they reflect the core beliefs of their faith should find it offensive when their prayers are reduced to ceremonial flag-waving.

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