Reciting The Lord's Prayer at City Council Meetings

I recently became aware of the fact that reciting the Lord's Prayer before city council meetiings is still happening in southern Ontario. The latest kerfulffle is in Durham Region, just east of Toronto. Apparently the Regional Council members have been reciting the Lord's Prayer and a group called Secular Ontario wants them to stop.

The practice was declared illegal following an Ontario Court of Appeals ruling in 1999. Illegal or not, it should stop. It's a really dumb idea.

But that's not what the Council Members of Durham Region think, according to an article in today's Toronto Star [Durham praises the Lord]. The Mayor of Oshawa, John Gray says,

God is the Supreme Being. Period. Full stop

The locals came out in force to support the council. Apparently they want to make sure everyone who attends Council meetings gets the message. Durham is a Christian county—nobody else is welcome.

What are they thinking? What possible benefits come from reciting the Lord's Prayer in a public meeting? If you're a Christian who really needs help from God before deciding anything, then surely you can mumble quietly to yourself before taking your seat?

If you're not a Christian council member then being forced to listen to a Christian prayer is at best useless, and at worst damn annoying and insulting. The only benefit is the bigoted message it sends to everyone else in the room. It says "we're a bunch of Christians" nobody else should run for office.

The real shocker came from seeing the two other councils that recite the Lord's Prayer before meetings: Mississauga and Brampton. That's my neck of the woods. I've written to my council member Katie Mahoney.