Residents of Lancaster, California will have their say in the controversy over sectarian invocations at government meetings. The LATimes has more.
Ballot Measure I asks whether the city should continue its policy of randomly selecting clergy from different faiths to deliver the invocation at council meetings, "without restricting the content based on their beliefs, including references to Jesus Christ."
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The issue of praying before city meetings came to a head in Lancaster last August when the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California sent a letter to city officials stating that the group had received "a number of complaints" about council members and commissioners opening their meetings with invocations given in "the name of Jesus," or containing other explicitly sectarian religious references.The ACLU deemed the policy "divisive" and "unconstitutional" and warned Lancaster to quit the practice or risk facing legal action.
But, does a majority vote of the people have anything to do with whether or not a government policy violates citizens' religious freedom rights?
