If you get a chance you should really read through the entire Cape Gazette story from earlier today, about the Sussex County (DE) Council's practice of opening meetings with a recitation of The Lord's Prayer, and holding an annual government-sponsored prayer breakfast. Americans United sent members of the Council a letter challenging the practices. I could point to similar stories about once a month, as local legislative bodies with a long tradition of official prayers face the inevitable challenge brought on by today's awareness of such issues.
But here the whole scene comes across like – with the exception of the similar letter they received the year before – nobody ever heard of such a strange concept like the separation of church and state, as if we haven't been fighting in public about these very issues like legislative prayer for many years now.
This is my favorite sentence:
Americans United claims a government must act in a neutral manner when it comes to religion and may not endorse one religion over another religion.
Yes. Who *are* these strange people – perhaps aliens! – called Americans United? And why would they make such "claims" as these? Maybe they are Americans but come to us from the future, and have mistaken this era for one in which the Constitution requires government neutrality toward religion?
