It was the last place anyone would expect Harrisburg’s fervently religious mayor to be this morning.

Yet, there Linda Thompson stood, welcoming a packed room of atheists to the capital city during the first PA State Atheist/ Humanist Conference at the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Harrisburg.

Thompson said she was there acting as an ambassador to the city, encouraging the crowd to get out to see the city sights and spend money in Harrisburg.

Even though she is a devout Christian who has been criticized by former employees and the public for blurring religion with state and criticizing another city official for his sexual orientation, Thompson told the group she respected its right to gather in the city despite their differences.

“I believe in prayer. I pray all the time. For me, in my personal life, I believe. But as the mayor, I have to be fair to everyone, and I do,” Thompson said during her speech.

“I believe that individually, no matter what we believe in, we should treat each other as human beings and be fair to one another and not demonize each other,” she continued.

Thompson was invited to speak by the Pennsylvania Nonbelievers and the Lancaster Freethought Society, both of whom organized the multi-day event that ends today.

Public officials generally turn down offers to deliver welcome speeches at atheist conferences, but Thompson “graciously” accepted the invite, a moderator at the event said.

The mayor said her faith tells her to love everyone and that even though she is now officially a minister, she doesn’t let her faith interfere with her office.

Thompson didn’t exactly win over the crowd by repeatedly telling it she believes in God, but some attendees said she delivered a fair message.

“At an atheists convention any mention of God probably seems too religious to the atheists, but I think she represented fairly the position the mayor should have, which is that of neutrality when it comes to religion,” said Scott Rhoades, founder of the Free Thought Society.

“I respect the part (of the mayor’s speech) about respect. I respect the part about loving each other. I respect the part about getting along,” Rhoades added. “But I was a little dismayed about the number of times God came up. But she is a minister, it’s expected I guess for her to squeeze God in as much as she can.”

Claire Larson, secretary for the Free Thought Society, said she didn’t feel as though Thompson tried to proselytize to the crowd during her speech.

Thompson’s religious beliefs are known, and she tried to express a spirit of tolerance and community, Larson said.

“I appreciate her visit,” she said. “I’m not offended by difference of opinion. We certainly know not everyone sees things the way we do as atheists. (Thompson) was simply stating her perspective as she sees it and she was using her background to explain her reasoning for wishing to be present to welcome our group to Harrisburg.”

Adding to the irony of the mayor’s speech are the complaints employees have made against Thompson since she took office in 2010.

The mayor has lost a laundry list of workers who all said she is intolerant and hard to get along with.

One worker filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union against Thompson, saying she has tried to force workers to pray at meetings.

Chuck Ardo, Thompson's former spokesman who also was the spokesman for former Gov. Ed Rendell, said he witnessed the mayor make derogatory remarks about Jews and Controller Dan Miller, who is openly gay.

Miller plans to run against Thompson during next year's mayoral race.

After receiving complaints about Thompson, employees said the ACLU sent a letter to Thompson telling her she could not force prayer on employees. But she told the atheists that she never made anyone pray and accusations of intolerance in her office are false.

“A couple years ago there was a big hoopla about the mayor making people pray and that was absolutely erroneous,” Thompson said. “I was studying my Bible this weekend and I came across this one section and it asked this one question. It says ‘to which would an unbeliever be more attracted, a friendly atheist or a cranky church member? Would there be anything in the church member’s religion to attract an unbeliever?’ So we are called into our belief to be always in the spirit of love and engaging people.”

A member of the Pennsylvania Nonbelievers member named Jim, who refused to give his last name, said he enjoyed about two-thirds of Thompson’s speech.

But he said he was turned off by the mayor constantly using her religious beliefs to emphasize her points.

“I think the mayor went a little bit too far, personally, when she started to stress about the prayers and her belief in God. I think if she had downplayed that a little bit more, I think she would have had a warmer reception. I was prepared to be very welcoming to her,” Jim said.

“I also was one of the people who was demonstrating in front of her office within the (prayers in office) event she referred to,” he added. “As a city official, it’s my feeling that she shouldn’t be touting her religious beliefs as a part of her office. She was in the front as a representative of the city and with the separation of church and state, that was getting a little bit too much emphasis.”