Atheist to give invocation in Greece
Last edited Tue Jul 15, 2014, 10:04 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Staff writer 8 a.m. EDT July 15, 2014
In May, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing prayer before public meetings thrust the town of Greece into the national spotlight. ... Tuesday evening, Dan Courtney will do it again when he becomes the first atheist to deliver a secular opening invocation before the Town Board.
Courtney, who lives in Hamlin, was among the first people to contact the town in order to get on the invocation schedule after the decision came down on May 5, upholding the town's prayer practice as long as the town does not discriminate against minority faiths or non-believers.
A member of the Atheist Society of Rochester, Courtney, {a mechanical engineer}, said he plans to quote from the Declaration of Independence and call upon the common principals that unite all Americans.
Listening to recordings of the oral arguments in the case of Greece v. Galloway, Courtney said he was struck by a rhetorical question from Justice Antonin Scalia. ... "He asked 'What is the equivalent of prayer for someone who is not religious?' and there was this laughter in the courtroom," said Courtney. "That revealed this huge blind spot, not just of Justice Scalia, but of many {theists} who don't understand how a nonbeliever can participate. I felt I needed to step forward and show that nonbelievers can participate and can provide invocations."
Read more: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/07/14/town-greece-dan-courtney-prayer-athiest/12650143/
Hat tip, Above the Law.
Shoutout to Antonin Scalia once again, for making this possible. And now the real reason for posting:
Whatever The Wall Street Journal. is paying the person who came up with this headline, it's not enough. It's the A-Hed, of course.
Supreme Court Ruling on Public Invocations Gives Atheists a Prayer
By Joe Palazzolo
July 14, 2014 10:37 p.m. ET
....
{S}everal town boards that had done away with prayers that include references to specific faiths are trying to revive them. ... The groundswell is a reaction to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May that sanctioned prayers before meetings of the town board in Greece, N.Y. The court rejected arguments that the overwhelmingly Christian prayers gave preference to one faith and violated the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion.
The decision was a blow to nonbeliever activists, but it also created an opportunity. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the 5-4 ruling, emphasized the importance of inclusion, holding the town to a policy that permits "a minister or layperson of any persuasion, including an atheist," to give the invocation.
....
The town board at the center of the Supreme Court case is also scheduled to receive an invocation from an atheist, Dan Courtney of Rochester, N.Y., at the body's Tuesday meeting. ... The former president of the Freethinkers of Upstate New York, Mr. Courtney says he plans to give a four-minute speech highlighting the notion that the country was founded on the authority of the people, and the importance of ensuring Americans of all types are heard.
He will be the first atheist to address the Greece town board. Before the Supreme Court ruling, the town board allowed a Wiccan priestess to deliver an invocation.
....
Write to Joe Palazzolo at joe.palazzolo@wsj.com
Dan Courtney, former president of the Freethinkers of Upstate New York. Joe Philipson for The Wall Street Journal
malthaussen
(17,065 posts)"Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to ensure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen."
(From Creatures of Light and Darkness, 1969)
-- Mal
Unca Adverse
(29 posts)It would be most legitimate for the atheist Dan Courtney to invoke from the Declaration of Independence,
for one valid definition of the term "invocation" is: quoting of something as reason, the act of calling
or quoting something such as a law as a reason or justification
I myself, being an atheist from birth, might prefer to quote the heroic scientist Stephen Hawking,
or perhaps something from the man Jesus, who was our first great socialist leader;
such as, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" __ Of course then to expound upon it . . .
Our world could well use such reasoning, given the heinous cruelties our American president
is now attempting to render upon the innocent, endangered children of our southern neighbors.
Even the Catholic Pope is against him!