Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The new mayor of Southport, Indiana, Rob Thoman, decided to do away with a spoken prayer at the start of their city council meetings and substituted it with a moment of silence. One local wingnut decided he simply couldn't be happy if he could not force others to listen to his prayers and got arrested for it:
During the moment of silence, Lynch began reading a prayer out loud; when asked to be quiet, Lynch began to pray louder, according to the report.Lynch was then asked to leave the meeting. He refused and grabbed a chair, prompting Southport assistant Chief Mark Myers to forcibly pry Lynch's hands from the chair, according to the report.
Lynch continued to resist Myers, according to the report, and refused to to place his hands behind his back. He was eventually removed from the building and handcuffed.
Lynch made some rather incoherent comments:
Lynch is threatening a lawsuit for what he called a false arrest."I'm not promoting any church or any religion," Lynch said. "All I want is the way it was. Why take away our rights as citizens to have a word of prayer, because we've always had it."
This is the typical religious right conflation between having a right to pray and having a right to make other people listen to your prayers. Every citizen can have a word of prayer anytime they want. Heck, the council even sets aside a time for them to do it. But that isn't enough. They simply won't be satisfied unless they can make other people take part or listen to their prayers.
If this was just about wanting to pray, he would have sat there and prayed. But it isn't about that. It's about imposing his religion on others.
Politics
Comments
Posted by: noncarborundum | November 23, 2008 9:24 AM
Good for Chief Meyers. I hope he has lots of cuffs for the next meeting when the nuts will likely assemble in force to 'teach that mayor a thing or two'.
Posted by: Mike | November 23, 2008 9:47 AM
The Hobbsian Fallacy raises its ugly head once more. What is ought to be.
Posted by: Greg Laden | November 23, 2008 9:50 AM
More than "What is ought to be.", you often get "What is always was." Evidence: So many believe that 'under god' was always part of the pledge (introduced in 1954 I believe and not universal even by 1966) and even worse, that the pledge came from the founding fathers in some extreme cases.
Posted by: Mike | November 23, 2008 10:19 AM
Lynch reminds me of the Thanksgiving dinner guest who insisted that everybody listen to his memorized thank you to Jesus prayer before eating. This was rude since he piped up while the rest of us were holding hands around the table and having our traditional moment of silence. We arrested his involvement by never inviting him back.
Too bad people like Lynch can't be excluded similarly. By 'people like Lynch' I mean those who foist their religion on others.
Posted by: Rod | November 23, 2008 10:27 AM
Noncarborundum beat me to it.
We had a similar incident when my son graduated from high school. An atheist student objected to the invocation prayer, so they had a moment of silence. A dozen or so wingnuts began loudly reciting The Lord's Prayer (Ironically, it immediately follows Noncarborundum's cited verse). In this case, though it was the student who got kicked out of his own graduation.(sort of) When they started praying, he walked out and was not permitted to return.
The next day, the Washington Post had an article which must have been written by one of the loudmouths. It talked about a crowd "thousands strong" when it couldn't have been 30 people.
Posted by: BaldApe | November 23, 2008 10:58 AM
Don't you just hate it when just one guy has to spoil the moment of silence? From my experience, Lynch is probably a militant Buddhist.
Posted by: kehrsam | November 23, 2008 1:55 PM
Lynch is probably a militant Buddhist
Then they would have needed the fire department, not the police. ;o)
Posted by: dogmeatib | November 23, 2008 3:35 PM
Why is it that these characters are always "offended" when certain rights are exercised by some people(e.g., the right to pray or not), and start screaming about Christians being "persecuted", when they want things like prayer in the classroom forced on everyone? I don't get it.
Anne G
Posted by: Anne Gilbert | November 23, 2008 5:22 PM
Anne G: Because not allowing them 100% hegemony is an attack on "the truth."
Posted by: jws | November 23, 2008 5:29 PM
Hey, I just realized what time of year it is. Any takers on a pool for the first "War on Christmas" article?
Posted by: BaldApe | November 23, 2008 9:57 PM
BaldApe, you're late by at least two weeks.
Posted by: Nentuaby | November 24, 2008 1:06 AM
So even the "War on Christmas" can't wait until the day after Thanksgiving. Is nothing sacred?
This guy got what he deserved!
BTW I mentioned the "under God" part to some women in a Bible study. They had forgotten about that-and some were amazed that it hadn't been there all along!
Posted by: Rev. AJB | November 24, 2008 1:45 AM
Posted by: charles johnson | November 24, 2008 2:01 AM
...and even worse, that the pledge came from the founding fathers in some extreme cases.
Yeah. Didn't almost half the country want to put one of those extreme cases next in line to gain access to the nuclear launch codes?
Posted by: Josh | November 24, 2008 5:27 AM
This new mayor is a real firebrand, too: hometown boy, graduated from IU-Bloomington, is a dentist, served in Army Med Corps, renovates buildings, supports the Boy Scouts, and is a private pilot. Notably, his campaign website says nothing about his religious persuasion.
It's not the first time he's had problems with the moment of silence. The entire city council walked out during a July meeting to protest Thoman's refusal to open with a prayer, ending a 20-year tradition.
NOTE: The councilmembers are all Republicans. Thoman is a Dem. Surprised?
The MOS was a compromise. Lynch was a sorehead about it then, too.
Guess he changed his mind.
Posted by: wheatdogg | November 24, 2008 6:52 AM
My bad. Thoman is also a Republican; he just thinks like a Democrat ...
Posted by: wheatdogg | November 24, 2008 6:56 AM
wheatdog,
I was gonna jump your case so bad. ;^) Thoman won the Republican primary and therefore the general election. My Beloved and Darling wife is one of about three registered Democrats in Southport - and she switched parties to vote against Hillary!
At an earlier meeting, a number of the town council members walked out because Thoman wouldn't sanction the prayer. That has been all
wallpaperedsmoothed* over.fusilier
James 2:24
*the first time we don't get the snow removed There Shall Be Hell To Pay
Posted by: fusilier | November 24, 2008 9:06 AM
The council can easily give Lynch religious accommodation at a small cost:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLZKEre3yJ0
Posted by: Gingerbaker | November 24, 2008 12:03 PM
Anne Gilbert:
Because the people in question are batshit insane. They actually believe that not allowing them to presecute anyone they want constitutes persecution of THEM. It's complete and utter madness. They have been driven so insane by their religious dogma that they are incapable of any form of self-examination. They cannot even conceive of the possibility that they might be wrong.
Posted by: phantomreader42 | November 24, 2008 1:17 PM
They should start the meeting with a prayer to Satan, or the Earth Goddess, or something. If Lynch want's a prayer so bad, give it to him. :)
Posted by: Giles | November 24, 2008 1:33 PM
The new Mayor changed the policy just to twist his predecessor's tail (long term disagreements allowed to fester).
Funny though, that so many people are able see this through their own warped lens. I don't believe that prayer should have a standard place in government business. But, this whole thing is more about a pissing contest than it is about separation of Church and State.
Posted by: varangianguard | November 24, 2008 2:25 PM
They should start the meeting with a prayer to Satan, or the Earth Goddess, or something.
I agree. Open the meeting with a communication to Odin. Remeber all those assholes screaming about the Hindu prayer in the Senate in July of 07?
Posted by: Josh | November 24, 2008 2:49 PM
Giles:
What they need is another guy to loudly and obnoxiously demand a prayer before every meeting, and demand to lead it. Then offer prayers to entirely fictitious gods (try the D&D pantheon), to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, maybe a prayer in Klingon. Change it up every time. Just make the whole thing a laughingstock. And keep it up until they get sick of the whole thing and realize that mandatory prayer is a waste of time.
Posted by: phantomreader42 | November 24, 2008 3:30 PM
And keep it up until they get sick of the whole thing and realize that mandatory prayer is a waste of time.
So you're giving them what-four, five thousand years?
Posted by: Josh | November 24, 2008 3:41 PM
fusilier --
I'm glad I corrected myself then!
phantomreader42's idea is a good one, though aren't all gods fictitious? The idea of a Klingon prayer (to what?) is appealing, though, some uninformed folks might confuse it with Arabic, and all hell would break out.
Posted by: wheatdogg | November 25, 2008 7:44 AM
I probably could have phrased it better as "explicitly fictitious gods", meaning those that were recently and obviously made up, whether for a joke or fantasy purposes. It could be fun to string folks along and see how long you could get them to think you were an ACTUAL follower of Olidamarra the Laughing Rogue or the Lapine sun-god Frith.
Posted by: phantomreader42 | November 25, 2008 10:14 AM
Some people do seem to have a real problem believing that prayer does NOT have to be vocal or communal. This isn't the only time I've heard of someone acting as though if it's not out loud and everyone isn't (therefore) forced to at least pretend to join in, then you're not "really praying."
Weird.
Posted by: Chrissl | November 25, 2008 10:28 PM