The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling out Missouri state Sen. Rick Brattin for hosting worship services in his office inside the Missouri Capitol.
Brattin posted a video of a “full worship service” that he hosted inside his Senate office on July 10, including a man singing “The Father’s House” while dozens of people join in. Brattin boastfully remarked about his religious get-together: “In my office, we keep GOD first, which allows us to put people first. Today in the office, we’ve got a full worship service breaking out! Thankful to these fearless Christians for their prayers, their support and their steadfast commitment to our Lord.”
This same legislator went viral earlier this year for suggesting that a rape victim’s unwanted pregnancy “by God’s grace, may be the greatest healing agent [they] need in which to recover from such an atrocity.”
FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor have written to Brattin asking him to refrain from hosting future worship services in his official capacity. “As a government official, you are tasked with upholding the nation’s Constitution — including the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause,” the letter emphasizes. Barker and Gaylor point out he represents a religiously diverse population that includes the nonreligious, the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population by religious identification, now making up three-in-10 Americans.
“It is unfortunate that some public officials inject religion into public life to score easy political capital,” states the letter. “However, those given the privilege of serving Americans must be guided by our godless and entirely secular Constitution, barring religious tests for public office and any establishments of religion by government.”
Christians who know their bible are familiar with the biblical injunction of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, condemning public prayer as hypocritical (Matthew 6:5-13). Observing a strict separation of church and state honors not only the First Amendment, but also the rights of conscience of all Missouri citizens.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 40,000 members across the country, including almost 500 members in Missouri. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
