Not a prayer

My first thought when I read about the complaint against the nearby Town of Greece (NY)because the Town Board meeting began with a prayer was that God was getting back at Greece what it had been doing to take over the public access channel. (I know, I’ll probably earn a complaint from someone for that.)

My second thought was, wait a minute, why is this Suburb of Brighton resident getting the ACLU after westside Greece? (Dang Eastsider!).

After a moment of prayerful (ahem) thought, I had to concede she had a point – if Greece does indeed only feature Christian prayers.

It is apparently one of only four towns in Monroe County where they have prayers to begin their meetings, and Gates (my town) is the only one with a moment of silence.

The pieces in the Gates Chili Post about Nancy Braiman’s crusade include explanations from Greece officials that they rotate the prayers among clergy from Greece churches, but that there are no synagogues and mosques in Greece so they can’t have representatives of those faiths.

Hmm. I bet they could find representatives of the Jewish and Muslim faiths if they tried. Oh, and Hindus, Wiccans, Baha’is, Santerians, Shintoists, Jains. Sikhs, Yankee fans (devil worshippers!), and others.

They could even get an agnostic to lead them in a moment of confusion.

Here in Gates, we take kind of a middle position with our moment of silence (referred to as a “silent prayer”). As Supervisor Esposito notes, no one is forced to take part in it.

Makes sense. It might be a reasonable compromise if Greece does not go for the all-inclusive approach.

Besides, I suspect in some towns – with and without official prayers - the people at the meetings are already doing some heavy duty praying as they listen to their town leaders in action.