How sad that Independent Councillor and Mayor of Dartmouth Debbie Morris thinks that councillors who do not share her own Anglicism should be excluded from parts of Council meetings. In the 21st century I would have hoped that the saying of prayers would be a thing of the past. The story of Atheist Brian Boughton being discriminated against is surely wrong. He quite rightly argues for a period of silence so that Jew, Methodist and Agnostic can ponder their own civic responsibilities in their own way. Suppose a Council with a majority of Atheists had insisted upon a Humanist ceremony before the meeting? What if Tower Hamlets, where I am pretty sure the majority of councillors are Muslim, had insisted on having an imam in before each Council meeting? Would Debbie say it was right for Catholics to be told they should stand outside a Council meeting as second class councillors before the proceedings began?
We can imagine the Daily Mail and the Telegraph fulminating and fermenting at the very thought. In my experience quite rightly the majority of London Councils no longer have prayers.
In the European Parliament we are secular and do not have religious services, quite rightly. Can you imagine the bureaucracy trying to calculate and appropriately apportion slots between Catholics, Lutherans, Muslims, Atheists etc.? It would make the Lisbon Treaty seem simple.
Sadly Parliament sets a poor example, still saying Anglican prayers. The sooner we have the disestablishment of the Church of England and a secular political life throughout the country the better.
As a soulless heathen, I have no problem with prayers. Since I don’t believe in what they represent, they can’t have any effect on me. They’re just words in some arcane ritual. I can be silent while they are said.
I wouldn’t be troubled by an Imam, a priest, or a buddhist minister (I don’t know the correct term) saying a prayer before a meeting as long as it was quick. I would be troubled by being told I had to leave the room as a non-believer in case I ‘disrupt the vibes’ or whatever the term is now. Since I would have no objection to the prayers, why would the prayers object to me?
Tolerance is easy. Intolerance is just too much effort.