SHARE Trina Baughn, Oak Ridge councilwoman Rick Chinn Jr. Aleta Ledendecker

By Bob Fowler

OAK RIDGE — One City Council member opted not to attend the invocation.

Another walked out near the end, and the speaker said the mayor cut her off before she ended her statement — which included the comment, "No deities need to, or should be, invoked at the openings of your meetings."

That was the reception that Aleta Ledendecker, a member of the Rationalists of East Tennessee, said she received when she gave the invocation at the start of Monday's Oak Ridge City Council meeting.

"It was quite rude," Ledendecker said. "I actually found it offensive."

But council members Trina Baughn and Rick Chinn Jr., who staged the walkout, said much the same of Ledendecker's invocation.

"I didn't appreciate what she was saying," Chinn said. "In my opinion, this country was founded on Christian principles."

Chinn said he stepped out of the council's meeting room before Ledendecker finished because "I just couldn't take it anymore."

Baughn said she decided to exit before the invocation because she "suspected the comments she (Ledendecker) was going to make were going to be an affront to my own beliefs."

During her remarks, Ledendecker urged council members to "not bow our heads, but hold them high with eyes open so that we may keep them focused on the issues facing Oak Ridge."

She also said the city's "growing diversity encompasses not only many religions, but a growing contingent of those who claim no religious affiliation, the 'nones.' "

The council members' reactions spoke volumes, Ledendecker said.

"One of our messages is that we just want to be treated equally. We don't want to be discriminated against," she said. "The behavior of those council members verified the fact that we aren't treated the same."

Like-minded East Tennesseans said they're appalled at the council's reaction.

"We didn't like it at all," said Larry Rhodes, group president and founder of the Atheist Society of Knoxville.

The Rationalists of East Tennessee began asking city councils in East Tennessee to be allowed to give invocations after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Ledendecker said opined that secular groups should be given equal representation if there are religious invocations.

Since then, the organization has given "pretty much the same invocation" at the start of meetings in Lenoir City and Clinton.

"This was the first time people have actually walked out," Ledendecker said.

She said Mayor Warren Gooch "cut me off before I was done" with her invocation. City Manager Mark Watson said Ledendecker had exceeded the three-minute time frame normally allowed for public remarks during city meetings.

Ledendecker also said Rationalists of East Tennessee learned at the last minute they were on the agenda to provide the invocation.

"They put us on the agenda but didn't contact us," Ledendecker said.

The Rationalists of East Tennessee on their website said the organization seeks to benefit people by "expanding understanding of the universe through the use of empirical and rational methods." Among their purposes, according to the website: "To explore ethical and intellectual alternatives to supernatural beliefs."

The group's website, www.rationalists.org, also has a picture of a billboard the group sponsored carrying the statement, "Don't Believe in God? You're not Alone!"