Prayer is coming back to Manatee County school board meetings

At the recommendation of its newest member, the School Board of Manatee County has voted to bring prayer back to its meetings.

School board records date back to Jan. 10, 2007, on the district website. On that day, Pastor Paul Scheele opened a meeting on behalf of the Congregational United Church of Christ.

Such prayers continued for nearly a decade. In July 2010, Pastor Lawrence Livingston gave an invocation on behalf of Palmetto’s Eternity Temple.

In February 2013, Rev. Jim Rosenburg opened a school board meeting on behalf of Trinity United Methodist. And on Nov. 22, 2016, Shiraz Hassan led a prayer on behalf of the Islamic Society of Sarasota and Bradenton.

Then, with no explanation in the meeting minutes that followed, invocations became a thing of the past.

Hoping to continue the tradition, Manatee’s newest school board member, Mary Foreman, suggested during a Dec. 1 workshop that invocations be revived.

“I would really love to see that start again,” she said. “It’s a good way to connect with members of the faith-based community. Also, prayer doesn’t hurt. I believe in it.”

Most board members were quick to support the idea. And while Chairman Charlie Kennedy was concerned about prayers that favor a particular religion, opening the board to possible legal challenges, he ultimately supported the move.

“I’m not going to stand in the way of it, but I think it’s going to get us a couple letters down the road if we have an invocation that is promoting — even passively promoting — one religion over another,” he said.

The school board finalized its invocation agreement with a unanimous vote on Tuesday evening. Board member James Golden, a minister, will lead the first invocation on Jan. 26.

For those interested in leading a future prayer, Kennedy extended an invitation to anyone who signs up and abides by the following rules:

• Be solemn in tone and respectful to all people..
• The invocation can be sectarian or nondenominational. No faith is excluded.
• Don’t force attendees to participate in the invocation or condemn those who choose not to.
• Must not proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief.

Anyone who wants to lead an invocation, Kennedy said, should email one of the board’s five members or call 941-708-8770, extension 41155.

“I think this is a great effort,” board member Scott Hopes said on Tuesday. “For me, it was at least kindergarten through sixth grade, every morning we said the Pledge of Allegiance and we said the Lord’s Prayer. You never had to think twice about how you were supposed to treat people.”

‘THE LORD AND SAVIOR’

The latest agreement was not the first to be reviewed and approved by Manatee’s school board.

Board members voted 4-1 to approve an invocation agreement on Dec. 8, one week after Foreman suggested the practice be continued. Golden, who cast the dissenting vote, was unhappy with two provisions.

The initial plan required prayers to be “nonsectarian and nondenominational.” It also barred the speaker from referencing “the Lord and Savior” or “other Deity.”

“I would not want to be a party to approving an invocation request that would cause me to have to leave Jesus out,” Golden said at the time.

Speaking during the Dec. 8 meeting, the school district’s attorney, Mitchell Teitelbaum, said he relied on case law to draft the agreement.

“To use our Lord and Savior Jesus in an invocation would, in fact, be a violation of the Supreme Court and the case law that follows it,” Teitelbaum said, addressing the board.

“We have to keep the guidelines in place so we don’t get bombarded by freedom from religion, atheist groups and anybody who does not want religion in our schools, classrooms or board rooms,” he continued.

In a follow-up interview on Wednesday afternoon, Teitelbaum said he was cautious when drafting the original agreement, which he put together in one week’s time. He and the school board attorney, Stephen Dye, then took a closer look at case law and drafted the more lax agreement, which was approved on Tuesday.

And it remained true, Teitelbaum said, that naming a certain deity could lead to trouble in certain contexts. For example, it would be improper to stop people from leaving the room or to try and convert listeners.

Since the process is open to all faiths, the new agreement makes no attempt to bar religion-specific language from school board invocations.

“The invocation/prayer however must not be exploited to advocate, proselytize or advance any one or to disparage any other faith or belief,” it states.

Greece v. Galloway

Manatee’s invocation agreement cites the 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Town of Greece v. Galloway.

According to the opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, there was a longstanding history of prayer in America’s legislative bodies. Prayers are valid, the 5-4 majority ruled, so long as they were “solemn and respectful in tone,” and so long as they “invited lawmakers to reflect upon shared ideals and common ends.”

It was important, the ruling states, that “any minister or layman” was able to participate in the town’s prayer, “including an atheist.” The town of Greece was also careful to not review the prayers in advance or to influence their tone or content.

“That a prayer is given in the name of Jesus, Allah, or Jehovah, or that it makes passing reference to religious doctrines, does not remove it from that tradition,” the ruling states.

“Even those who disagree as to religious doctrine may find common ground in the desire to show respect for the divine in all aspects of their lives and being,” it continues. “Our tradition assumes that adult citizens, firm in their own beliefs, can tolerate and perhaps appreciate a ceremonial prayer delivered by a person of a different faith.”

There has been some national debate about whether school boards fall under the Greece v. Galloway decision, which focuses on a town meeting and legislative prayer.

Such prayer is common at meetings of the Bradenton City Council and the Manatee County Commission. And those prayers were likely covered by the the Greece v. Galloway ruling, but according to some, a school board was entirely different.

Alex Luchenitser, the associate vice president and legal director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said school boards convene for a different crowd.

“Children often attend school board meetings and are involved in school board proceedings,” he said. “There’s a special constitutional concern about making sure youth aren’t coerced or pressured to take part in prayer.”

Speaking at Tuesday’s school board meeting, Golden said he was confident in the Supreme Court ruling and the new invocation agreement.

There was no doubt, Golden said, that his prayer on Jan. 26 would honor a personal faith, and that others could do the same going forward.

“If I stand at that podium and offer a prayer it will be a prayer to the God I serve and the Son he sent,” Golden said at the meeting. “I will also be respectful of anybody else who comes and prays in any other name they call God by, because I don’t have to be right.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 6:53 AM.