City Council Denies Prayer

In the past month or so, I have been attending the Rexburg City Council. I had never been to a city council before so this is kind of a fun opportunity to see the inner working of government in a small town.
To start off, after the Pledge of Allegiance and a roll call of Council Members, the person conducting the council for that night will invite any public attendee to present an issue that was not scheduled on the agenda for the night.
On this particular night a man, most likely in his 40’s and still dressed in workers clothes, confidently stood up to present his issue. The man, whose name I did not catch, began to speak.
“Council members, I have noticed that we do not start out city council with a prayer. It is my understanding that it is up to each individual council to determine whether we are to pray or not.”
The council members nodded that he was correct and the man proceeded.
“I looked into this and found that other city councils in the state begin their meetings with a prayer, and I thought because we claim to be “America’s Family Community” it would only be fitting,” the man looked to the council for approval and took their silence as invitation to continue.
“Often times things are discussed here that get heated, and I think that it would make things a little more comfortable and calm if we could start with a prayer.”
The council took this information in for a moment and then the conducting Council Member told the man that this issue was debated some time ago and they came to the agreement not to begin the meeting with a prayer. The man then asked if it was possible to reconsider and the council politely told him no. The man sat down looking disappointed and defeated.
He brings up a couple good points. Rexburg is known as “America’s Family Community” and a prayer might make things less contentious, but the council made their decision without second thought.
According to http://www.acluutah.org/publicprayer.htm prayer was establish as constitutional in 1983.

“In Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783 (1983), the Court held that a state legislature’s practice of opening each legislative day with a prayer performed by a state-selected and paid chaplain did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Rather than examining the case under the usual Establishment Clause framework, the Court looked to the history of the use of prayer before legislative sessions, in both the state and federal systems, and relied on this history when finding these prayers to be constitutional.”

In research I found that the man’s claim that prayers are offered before City Council meetings in many other city councils was true. Nationwide City Councils begin their meeting with a prayer. No one is forced to participate, but it is said for anyone who would like to take part.
I wonder why the City Council didn’t even give the man’s request second thought. It seemed like a like a legitimate request to me, but that’s just my opinion.