FFRF is urging Mount Vernon (Ohio) Mayor Matthew Starr not to be a part of a prayer breakfast being held next Wednesday, Sept. 16.
A concerned Mount Vernon resident informed the state/church watchdog that Starr is once again participating in a Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast hosted by the Mount Vernon Association of Police Chaplains. Starr has been reportedly attending the annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast since at least 2022.
FFRF is asking Starr to immediately cease using his position as mayor to promote religion.
“Your participation in your official capacity sends the message that you, as mayor, prefer those citizens who are religious and engage in prayer over those who do not,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence writes to the mayor.
A “prayer breakfast,” no matter how well intentioned, does not truly welcome or represent community members who do not believe in prayer, as well as religious community members who do not support public prayer or government entanglement with religion, as FFRF points out.
To respect the constitutional rights of Mount Vernon residents and honor his duty to remain religiously neutral as an elected official, FFRF is insisting that Starr not frequent the upcoming prayer breakfast or any religious events in general from now on.
FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor notes that the location alone, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, signals that this is to be a Christian-dominated event, which not only sends a message of exclusion to the nearly 29 percent of Ohio residents who are religiously unaffiliated, but the additional 9 percent who belong to other faiths, thereby possibly excluding more than a third of Mount Vernon citizens.
“By taking part in an explicitly religious ‘prayer breakfast,’ Starr is inherently sending a message of disfavoritism to all members of the community who do not fall in line with his personal belief system,” says Gaylor. “Starr could certainly attend as a private citizen, but by prominently lending the prayer breakfast his photo, name and presence in his capacity as mayor, he is misusing his office to bless a religion and a religious event.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including more than 1,000 members and multiple chapters in Ohio, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
