{"id":25446,"date":"2016-06-27T08:01:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T15:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/ordinance-to-remove-prayer-in-kenai-assembly-meetings-struck-down\/"},"modified":"2016-06-27T08:01:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T15:01:26","slug":"ordinance-to-remove-prayer-in-kenai-assembly-meetings-struck-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/ordinance-to-remove-prayer-in-kenai-assembly-meetings-struck-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Ordinance to remove prayer in Kenai assembly meetings struck down"},"content":{"rendered":"

KENAI<\/strong> \u2014<\/strong> The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly begins every meeting with a prayer.<\/p>\n

Technically called an invocation, the borough code provides for local religious leaders to come and offer a prayer for the meeting. Those interested apply to the borough to offer a prayer and are selected by the assembly president.<\/p>\n

Some have raised concerns about the presence of religion in the government proceedings, saying a prayer of a particular religion would offend those of different or no faith. Multiple people said in public testimony at a borough meeting earlier this year that the prayer made them uncomfortable. <\/p>\n

Assembly president Blaine Gilman proposed an ordinance to be introduced at the borough\u2019s Tuesday meeting that would have removed the invocation from the meeting procedures. He said in his memo to the assembly that others had approached him and expressed \u201cserious discomfort\u201d with the prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that the assembly does what it reasonably can to help all residents feel welcome at assembly meetings,\u201d Gilman wrote in the memo. \u201cAdditionally, if the invocation practice continues the assembly will have to develop policies and procedures to attempt to comply with legal requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the ordinance never made it to introduction. Several members of the assembly said they felt it was not worth a discussion or public hearing and wanted to see the ordinance killed before introduction.<\/p>\n

Assembly member Gary Knopp said he strongly opposed introducing the ordinance in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s somewhat appalling that we\u2019re even having this conversation,\u201d Knopp said. \u201cI can\u2019t hardly even fathom that we want to ban invocation at these meetings. We\u2019ve never denied anybody the right to speak or give invocation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several people at the meeting also said they felt it was an extreme measure. Some felt the invocation procedure should be more inclusive and open to all organized religious groups; others said if someone felt uncomfortable during the prayer, he or she could leave the room for the prayer and return when it is over.<\/p>\n

Keith Hamilton, who has delivered the invocation to the borough assembly before, said invocations occur at many levels of government and the borough should continue to hold them.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo delete (the invocation) would change the fabric of our meeting and our religious liberties,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cFind another that is deemed best to protect our religious liberty here this evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assembly member Brandii Holmdahl challenged him, asking if he would be comfortable with all groups coming in to offer prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you feel about the Church of Satan coming in and saying they have a right to come in and pray?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Hamilton answered that he personally does not agree with that prayer because it would not represent the majority of people, but he said all people should have the chance to offer an invocation. <\/p>\n

Albert Weeks, who said he has served both as a pastor and as a military chaplain, said the borough should change the language of the prayer or the qualifications to be more inclusive of all groups rather than eliminate the prayer outright. Those who wish to pray should be part of a recognized religious group, though, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe military has definitions for how they approve who comes and who speaks and who prays,\u201d Weeks said. \u201cOne of the things they look at is organized, recognized, ordained individuals. … If someone were to come from the Church of Satan and say they wanted to give an invocation, my first response would be to do the same thing the federal government does when somebody wishes to be a chaplain in the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several assembly members said they agreed with that requirement and would rather see the opportunity for invocation broadened than eliminated. Gilman himself said he changed his mind before introduction and chose to withdraw his support, but other assembly members chose to pick up the ordinance for introduction so the discussion could be had.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the direction to go is to be broad-based, which seems to be what people want, and first come, first served,\u201d Gilman said. \u201cWhat happens is if people want to give the invocation, they can contact the clerk, who will (process the applications) first come, first served.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assembly member Willy Dunne said he saw several \u201cred flags\u201d during the conversation about the ordinance and would have liked to see it introduced. The proposed condition of limiting the invocation to those ordained in recognized religions seems like a religious test, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is free to pray the way they want to, but we\u2019ve gotten some written testimony, too, that people feel like the public shouldn\u2019t be subjected to religious viewpoints,\u201d Dunne said. \u201cI would hate to see any kind of religious test imposed on anybody … before they gave an invocation. I would like to see this introduced for public hearing to have a more healthy discussion.<\/p>\n

The assembly denied the introduction of the ordinance 4-4. In the case of a tied vote, an ordinance fails.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Elizabeth Earl is a reporter for the Kenai Peninsual Clarion, where this story first appeared. Contact her at elizabeth.earl@peninsulaclarion.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KENAI \u2014 The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly begins every meeting with a prayer. Technically called an invocation, the borough code provides for local religious leaders to come and offer a prayer for the meeting. Those interested apply to the borough to offer a prayer and are selected by the assembly president. Some have raised concerns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25446"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}