Good Lodi

Here’s another church-and-state row, this time in Lodi, California. The LA Times takes up the story here:

Small cities in California are facing high unemployment, drained treasuries and now what some residents see as an assault on the only sacred moment in municipal affairs: the invocation at the start of city council meetings.  Turlock, Tracy, Tehachapi, Lancaster — all have been threatened in the last few months with lawsuits claiming that prayer at meetings breaches the wall between church and state. Nowhere has the ensuing debate played out more dramatically than in Lodi, where, after a tumultuous five-hour meeting this week, the City Council voted not only to continue invocations but also to allow phrases such as “in Jesus’ name.”

Unfortunately the phrase “So what?” doesn’t seem known to some locals:

“For whatever reason, Lodi seems to have become ground zero for deciding this issue,” City Atty. Steve Schwabauer said at Wednesday’s meeting, which drew a passionate crowd of more than 700.

At times, rhetoric boiled over as speakers trooped to the microphone in a local auditorium — the only room in town that could hold the anticipated crowd. A woman who identified herself as an atheist blasted Christianity, blaming it for the decimation of native Americans, the Salem witch burnings and “the oppression of all non-Christians.” Several speakers countered with stories of their personal salvation and dire warnings about the consequence of snuffing out prayer at city hall.

Good grief….