Atheists and followers of non-Christian faiths say public prayer is exclusionary.

WELLINGTON — Heads were bowed Tuesday night in the Village Council chambers as Deacon Vincent Muller of St. Therese de Lisieux Catholic Church gave the pre-meeting invocation.

Muller, wearing two large crosses, prayed to the "Heavenly Father" to be with the council as it governed the community.

Invocations such as this are important to those who believe prayer is an inspirational way to begin council meetings.

But others aren’t so sure.

"I don’t think local legislative bodies should open with a prayer," said Rabbi Andrew Rosenkranz of Temple Beth Torah in Wellington. "Sometimes it can be counter-productive."

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Controversy surrounding religion’s place in government is nothing new. The First Amendment prohibited congressional action on religion in 1791, stating, in part, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..."

While some point to those words as proof the Founding Fathers intended the separation of church and state, others say they guarantee the right to express one’s faith as one sees fit — including at government meetings.

"I think that the purpose of the prayer is to call attention to the gravity of the public proceeding and to acknowledge the place that religion holds in people’s lives," Wellington Village Attorney Laurie Cohen said.

But Rosenkranz, who has given the invocation for the Wellington council, said a community’s spiritual diversity can actually be an argument against public prayer.

"Sectarian prayers are for houses of worship and other private settings," he said. "A prayer before a legislative body can be exclusionary and make community members of other faiths feel like they are on the outside."

James Scott is one of those people.

"People think we eat babies and cast spells," said Scott, vice chairman of Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists. "They don’t understand what it truly means to be an atheist. Christians are atheists about every god except for one. I’m an atheist for one more god than them."

Number of non-believers growing

Scott is far from alone. Only 56 percent of Americans believe in God as described in the Bible, and about 10 percent of Americans do not believe in any form of higher power, according to a 2018 study by Pew Research.

To the millions of non-believers, or at least non-believers in mainstream Christianity, the prayers common at many town meetings leave them feeling left out.

Some question if the practice of public prayer might be more divisive than unifying. And some have taken that question to court.

A recently settled suit against Brevard County found it violated constitutional law by favoring Christian-based religions when selecting prayer-leaders for government meetings.

In Wellington, leaders from all houses of worship in the village are invited to perform invocations on a rotating basis.

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Even so, some say that rotation policy excludes congregations that cannot, or choose not to, spend money on brick-and-mortar locations.

"To be truly inclusive, the town should open up invocation opportunity to houses of worship that have members in the town, or that meet at someone’s house, rent space, or meet in a public place or school," said Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director at Americans United for Separation of Church and State and lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the Brevard lawsuit.

Wellington officials say the purpose of the invocation is to bring people together, and that they never want anyone to feel excluded.

"If someone doesn't want to participate they just don’t," Mayor Anne Gerwig said of prayers. "I ask that you remain standing for the invocation after the Pledge of Allegiance, but if anyone was uncomfortable to the point that they didn’t want to be in the room, or they chose not to stand, it wouldn’t be a problem for anyone."

But Scott said the offer to step out during prayers is, in itself, alienating.

"I feel I would be at a disadvantage because then I’ve been identified as somebody who is not part of their ’in’ crowd," he said.

Differing policies on prayer

Wellington is not the only municipality in Palm Beach County that prays. Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach and Jupiter all do so, with Jupiter making news this summer for re-introducing the word "God" after a four-year hiatus.

Boca Raton prays, but has taken a more benign approach by avoiding sectarian words such as "God," Jesus" and "Amen."

"Those of us here in Boca represent people of all different religions and non-religions, so we try to keep the religion part of it out of it," said Councilwoman Monica Mayotte. "We just kind of put out good feeling for everyone in our community."

West Palm Beach has taken an even more conservative approach by offering a moment of silence in lieu of prayers. The same holds true for Loxahatchee Groves.

"Everybody on all our coins and in our motto and everything else says ‘In God We Trust,’ but everybody’s afraid to say it," said former Loxahatchee Groves Mayor David Browning. "I understand where they are coming from, but it's a little bit disappointing."

Palm Beach Gardens, Delray Beach and Royal Palm Beach have the least religious meetings, offering neither an invocation nor a moment of silence.

"It’s not something I would want to change," said Royal Palm Beach Mayor Fred Pinto, who did not enact the policy. "I’m perfectly OK with the way it is."

The Supreme Court has upheld the rights of towns to pray, and some say any attempt to take that away is unfair to people of faith.

"Then you get a blowback from religious communities that say, ‘Can’t you at least say a prayer so you can govern a little bit better during the meeting?’" said Peter Cruise, executive director of the LeRoy Collins Public Ethics Academy at Florida Atlantic University and a Palm Beach County Ethics Commission member.

In Wellington, that blowback likely will not be a problem. The council plans to continue praying.

"Maybe it’s personal for me, because I do go to church every Sunday and participate in religion," Gerwig said. "It’s something that has not been controversial. There’s never been any complaints over it."

Data reporter Chris Persaud contributed to this story.

wrhodes@pbpost.com

@WendyRhodesFL