Humanist Network News
First published Aug. 4, 2004
Remember all those religious folks who recently said atheists can just keep quiet during the "under God" part of the Pledge? At the time, HNN wondered what those religious people would do if the shoe were on the other foot – if they had to listen to, say, an invocation of atheism.
Now we know how the religious city council members of Tampa, Fla. will react. They'll up and walk out, but not before interrupting the invocation. Michael R. Harvey of Atheists of Florida is making national headlines for an invocation he was invited to lead before a meeting of the Common Council of Tampa on Thursday, July 29. Councilman John Dingfelder had invited Harvey to lead the invocation, which begins each meeting of the council and has been predominantly led by a member of the protestant clergy.
"In the city charter, it's called an invocation," Harvey told HNN of the ceremony which begins Tampa City Council meetings. "They don't want to call it a prayer. But most people consider it a prayer."
Three out of the six council members walked out rather than listen to an invocation from someone who does not believe in God. Before Harvey could even begin, Councilman Kevin White motioned to cancel the invocation or invite someone else to deliver it.
"White begins by trying to make a motion that it is inappropriate for an atheist to (give the invocation) because it is a hallowed motion for those with faith," Harvey said.
At that point, Harvey said, a debate ensued in which two council members defended Harvey's right to continue, three were staunchly opposed, and another claimed she would not cast a vote on the matter but said that she felt it was inappropriate for an atheist to give the invocation.
"Basically three council members walked off before I said anything," Harvey said.
According to the St. Petersburg Times, Council member Mary Lavarez said, "I just can't sit here and listen to someone that does not believe in a supreme being." She walked out of the room.
Harvey was eventually allowed to begin his speech. Two paragraphs into the invocation, down came the gavel with an order that he was out of line for attempting to make a political statement out of the invocation.
"This is not nearly as much of a political statement as what occurred before," Harvey said. "It's not only hypocrisy, it's bigotry. They denied my right based solely on my nonreligious affiliation."
Harvey completed the invocation, then walked out to meet the press. So far, he said, the responses he has received about the invocation are split evenly between those in favor of what he did and those who are opposed. But the Atheists of Florida has received one threatening phone message: "You need to be exterminated," the caller said.
Not all criticism of Harvey's invocation is coming from the religious right, however. This recent posting on a Internet Infidels thread is an example of some criticism from the freethought community: "Well, it kind of pisses me off that he did it like this. IMO he should simply have given a very eloquent and likeable invocation that no one could have objected to in order to take the higher ground. All he did was validate their concerns."
If nothing else, Harvey said, the situation rekindled some much needed debate and dialogue on the issue of church/state separation. "The controversy centered around two things: First, an invocation is a prayer and therefore atheist should not be able to give a prayer; second, that an atheist shouldn't be able to give a invocation at all. My position is this: they're missing the point."
Harvey said that no governing body in America, which is guided by a secular Constitution, should incorporate religious ceremonies into its daily operations. Is it more appropriate to begin a government meeting with a political statement or a religious statement? Harvey asks.
It is disturbing when religious leaders begin governmental meetings with prayers asking God to protect Americans from abortion or gay marriage, he added.
Harvey is not the first atheist to be invited to deliver an invocation before a city council. In 2003, Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition for America, delivered an atheist's invocation before the city council members of Charleston, S.C. [Read more here.] Seven out of 12 council members walked out.
“The city council members in both cases exhibited rude behavior. What makes it more appalling is that both invocations contained non-controversial content,” said IHS Public Policy Director Tim Gordinier. “I think it’s wrong to have invocations before governmental functions in the first place. But if you’re going to have them then public officials need to treat everybody the same—and that includes atheists, too.”
--Duncan Crary is the communications director of the Institute for Humanist Studies
See how our readers voted on the Poll of the Week relating to this article. The question was: Should humanists seek to abolish all official invocations before government meetings?
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