“You can’t have your cake and eat it too” is a popular saying which essentially means that once the cake is eaten it is gone, or put another way, you can’t have it both ways. The city of Phoenix recognized this lesson and acquiesced.
The Phoenix City Council voted Wednesday to end the longstanding tradition of religious prayer before meetings and replaced it with a moment of silence, preventing an invocation by a Satanist group. The 5-4 vote sparked protests from some residents and city leaders, who said having a moment of silence is akin to banning prayer and gives the Satanists a victory.
Bolstered by a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Town of Greece v. Galloway
572 U.S. ___ (2014), city governments went full steam with religious prayers before public meetings. In 5-4 decision, the conservative justices on the Court ruled not only that municipal or county bodies may host prayers at meetings, but that such prayers can be pervasively sectarian (e.g., Christian in nature).
However, there was a glimmer of reason in the onerous decision. The ruling also suggested that where clergy members deliver the opening prayers, governments should also be inclusive of all religions and non-religion. The Court noted that, “The town at no point excluded or denied an opportunity to a would-be prayer giver. Its leaders maintained that a minister or layperson of any persuasion, including an atheist, could give the invocation.”
In Phoenix, along comes Stuart de Haan, a lawyer who represents the Satanic Temple, who maintained that the group wanted the same right to an invocation as dominant religious groups. The group doesn't worship any deities, including Satan, de Haan said, but it is opposed to religious tyranny. Naturally, the controlling religious zealots went apoplectic.
The issue is simple - equality. Once a government goes about preferential treatment to any group, religious or otherwise, they necessarily disadvantage or exclude others. Our constitution establishes rights, however it also protects against the subjugation of the majority. Those who want only sectarian prayer at government meetings, to the exclusion of others, can’t have their cake and eat it too.
Just one day more…
