Help keep a county board meeting free of prayer!

Dean Fuller, a supervisor on the Dodge County Board (Wis.), who believes in the separation of church and state, has bravely objected to regularly-scheduled government prayer led by a supervisor who is a Christian minister. He asked the Foundation to back up his complaint. Staff attorney Rebecca Kratz wrote an excellent letter. The Board suspended prayers.

As the news articles report below, now the county's executive committee is drafting a resolution to recommence prayer. The controversy remains hotly charged.

Get involved! Please send a short, polite, firm (signed) e-mail to the Dodge County Board c/o the County Clerk's office asking the Board to keep public Board meetings secular and prayer-free. County Board members may pray privately or at their church of choice. There is no need to invoke divine guidance over sewers or liquor licenses. FFRF often points out that believers might heed the advice of Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, who advised believers to pray in their closet in secret, lest they be considered hypocrites (Matt 6:5-6).

To be effective, write as an individual and please do not indicate you are responding to this Action Alert or forward the Action Alert to the County Clerk's office.

E-mail Dodge County Board, c/o:
kgibson@co.dodge.wi.us

(The Board and members do not have e-mail addresses but you may write: Russell Kottke, Chair, Dodge County Board, 127 E Oak St., Juneau, WI 53030)

Dodge Board revisits prayer
The Reporter (Fond du Lac, Wis.)
by Colleen Kottke
March 4, 2009

Prayer question could be resolved on March 17
WISC-News
by Aaron Martin
March 3, 2009

Counsel drafting prayer resolution
Watertown Daily Times
By Diane Graff
March 3, 2009

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., is a national association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics) that has been working since 1978 to keep church and state separate.