Atheists Attack the Lord's Prayer

It's a longtime tradition in the town of Brentwood, Maryland, to recite the Lord's Prayer at the start of city council meetings. Brentwood Mayor Roger Rudder says that the prayer is a time-honored tradition in this town of only about 3,000 people. He added, "As far as I can remember being in this town, we've always started our council sessions with a prayer. We don't question anyone what faith they are."

But a Washington, DC group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State is getting ready to start legal action to prohibit saying the prayer, claiming that it violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutional. This group has sent three letters asking the Town Council to stop the prayer, but has not received any response. The Mayor said, "I'm very offended that they even sent me a letter." After the first letter, the Town Council added a moment of silence to the prayer so people can say their own prayer. The atheist gorup is still threatening legal action, demanding all the council's public records, in order to build a lawsuit, which they are threatening to file this year.

One solution for the town of Brentwood, Maryland might be to substitute singing the last stanza of the Star Spangled Banner, and shout out the religious words loud and clear, including the word Power, which is capitalized to refer to God. Here are the words of our National Anthem's last stanza:

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand, Between their loved homes and the war's desolation; Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust" And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Listen to the radio commentary here: