11-1-17 Handout Brenna DurdenFREEDOM FROM
RELIGION foundation
P.O. Box 750 MADISON, WI 53701 (608) 256-8900 • WWW.FFRF.ORG
June 1, 2017
SENT VIA EMAIL & U.S. MAIL
plewis(cr�,greencovesprings. c om
The Honorable Pam Lewis
Mayor of Green Cove Spring City
321 Walnut St.
Green Cove Springs, FL 32043
Re: Unconstitutional invocation practices
Dear Mayor Lewis:
I am writing on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) regarding a
constitutional violation occurring in Green Cove Springs. We were contacted by a concerned
constituent of yours about the matter. FFRF is a national nonprofit organization with over 29,000
members across the country, including more than 1,400 members in Florida, and a state chapter,
the Central Florida Freethought Community. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional
principle of separation between state and church, and to represent the views of freethinkers
(atheists, agnostics, and nonbelievers).
It is our understanding that members of the Green Cove Springs City Council open meetings
with an invocation which always includes explicitly Christian language such as "in Jesus's
name" and "in Christ's name." Our complainant reports that "all present are asked to join hands,
bow their hands, as the invocator prays to Christ, after which all say `Amen'." On at least one
occasion the Council requested that emergency responders and their families in the audience
come up to where they were standing in order to participate. Lastly, council members Lead the
prayer themselves after calling the meeting into session, and do so while facing the audience.
Prayer at government meetings is unnecessary, inappropriate, and divisive. The best solution is
to discontinue invocations altogether. Green Cove Springs City Council Members members are
free to pray privately or to worship on their own time in their own way. They do not need to
worship on taxpayers' time. The City Council ought not to lend its power and prestige to religion
by scheduling, hosting or conducting governmental prayers. Citizens, including Green Cove
Springs's nonreligious citizens, are compelled to come before you on important civic matters, to
seek licenses and peiinits and to participate in important decisions affecting their livelihoods,
property, children, and quality of life. The prayers exclude the 23% of Americans who are not
religious.' It is coercive, embarrassing and intimidating for nonreligious citizens to be required to
make a public showing of their nonbelief (by not rising or praying) or else to display deference
I America's Changing Religious Landscape, PEW RESEARCH CENTER (May 12, 2015), available at
www.pewforum. org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-rel igious-landscape/.
1
Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Co -Presidents
they might unite in recommendations of any sort whatever, in the same manner as any
other individuals might do. Id.
Observing a strict separation of church and state offends nobody, includes everybody, and
honors not only the First Amendment, but also the very tenets being professed during the city
council's prayers. Christians who know their bible are familiar with the biblical injunction of
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, condemning public prayer as hypocrisy. "And when thou
prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have
their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee
openly." Matthew 6:5-6.
In order to demonstrate the GCSCC's respect for the diverse range of religious and nonreligious
citizens living in Green Cove Springs, we urge you to concentrate on civil matters and leave
religion to the private conscience of each individual by ending the practice of hosting prayers at
your meetings. Please inform us in writing of the steps you are taking to resolve this matter.
Andrew Seidel
Staff Attorney
AS:dchh
3