Action Alert

Help Stop Christian Prayers & Practices By Memphis City Council

Sept. 4, 2009

Help object to Christian prayers and practices that open Memphis City Council meetings. The minister who delivers the invocation is named “Chaplain of the Day” and given a “goody bag" by the City Council, a practice apparently in place since 1966. The City Council website also contains a New Testament allusion and mention of the bible. See Foundation sent a letter of objection (see news release, letter and transcripts of over-the-top prayers ).

In her September 3 letter of complaint to the city, Foundation Staff Attorney Rebecca Kratz wrote: “By hosting sectarian prayers, which tend to show preference for Christianity, the Council is inappropriately entangling itself with religion. To avoid the divisiveness these prayers cause within the community the solution is simple: discontinue official, government prayers before legislative meetings. At a minimum, the City should require that any invocations given before Council meetings comply with Supreme Court dictates and be nonsectarian and non-denominational . . . The prayerful practice at Council meetings runs afoul of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution because it impermissibly advances Christianity. It leads a reasonable observer to believe that the Council is endorsing not only religion over nonreligion but also Christianity over other faiths."

Prayers before government meetings are unnecessary. Council members may pray privately or at their church of choice, but 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).

The Foundation urges you to send a short, firm but polite (signed) message to the Mayor and your Council member, or call the Mayor's office, asking the Council to keep public meetings secular and prayer-free. It would also be helpful to send a short Letter to the Editor to the local newspaper (below). For maximum effectiveness, please write as an individual, not as an FFRF member responding to this action alert. (Please do not forward our Action Alert to the target!)

Contact Memphis Mayor:

Mayor Myron Lowry
City Hall
125 N. Main St. Room 700
Memphis TN 38103
(901) 576-6007
Mayor@memphistn.gov

Send Letter to the Editor:

Memphis Commercial Appeal

495 Union Ave.
Memphis TN 38103
(901) 529-2345

All letters must include the writer's name, full home address and daytime and evening phone numbers for verification.