Here we go again.

A national organization recently asked the City Council in Washington, Utah, to remove from the city government’s website a message urging residents to seek and celebrate Jesus.

In explaining why she felt her message was entirely appropriate, Council member Kimberly Casperson observed that “before every City Council meeting, we pray together as a community and invite leaders from many different religious groups to offer a prayer or share their thoughts and religious expressions.”

Many might see her explanation as describing an overly religious culture at City Hall in which encouraging residents to seek Jesus is par for the course.

In my decades of observing church-state conflicts, I’ve noticed that people of goodwill can find compromises that comply with the First Amendment and keep residents from feeling that religion is being shoved down their throats.

To illustrate, here’s a personal experience.

While attending a City Council meeting in West Valley City in 1987, the mayor, who was my neighbor and belonged to my LDS ward, asked me to begin the meeting with prayer. Although I’m no fan of prayer in government settings, that was not the time to make a fuss; I simply prayed as requested.

In the next few years, however, I’m sure I was not the only resident who opined to West Valley City that keeping prayer on our council’s agenda was a poor idea and contrary to the First Amendment. However, I was not optimistic that change would occur. My pessimism was based on experiences expressing similar sentiments to the Utah Legislature and elsewhere where it appeared such views were as welcome as a toothache.

What did West Valley City do? Surprise! They listened to residents, removed prayer from agendas and adopted an “opening ceremony” to begin meetings. The new approach didn’t eliminate prayers — it simply left the choice of how to begin sessions up to individual council members or invited participants. Since that time, the most frequent choice has been (or has included) the Pledge of Allegiance (with its “under God”), but other options have included using the ceremony to honor top local sports teams, words of praise for veterans, an NAACP presentation, thoughts on Navajo Code Talkers, a remembrance of Nelson Mandela, etc. A few prayers have also been offered.

This approach constitutes free speech, conforms with the First Amendment and is not divisive. Many Utah cities follow a similar path. Ogden’s moment of silence is a good option. Additionally, nothing prevents city leaders from praying with each other in private at City Hall, and anyone is free to mention God in their comments.

Nevertheless, numerous Utah cities continue to require prayer. This is especially true in heavily LDS communities such as Provo, Orem, St. George, Payson, Tremonton, South Jordan, Herriman and others. Like Washington city, some invite representatives of non-LDS denominations to pray, which allows non-LDS faiths to be insensitive, too. In Tremonton, the mayor routinely warns that anyone who may be offended by prayer can, in effect, get up, get out and stay out until the prayer is over.

For city governments to mandate a religious exercise is not just annoying to nonbelievers who want to attend public meetings without being prayed over, it is equally annoying to those of us who are believers and see the practice as a violation of our divinely established Constitution’s “no establishment of religion” clause, contrary to the Golden Rule, grandstanding for Jesus and another reason for hostility toward religion. It makes one wonder how parishioners would react if church leaders always began services by directing remarks to mayors.

Why has the practice persisted in Utah for so long?

One reason is the de facto acquiescence of church leaders, both LDS and others. Perhaps top religious leaders take their “hands off” approach because they see city-mandated prayer as favoring religion. You can bet they wouldn’t remain hands off if city councils decided to begin meetings with an exercise favorable to atheists.

In these divisive times, here’s a recommendation to religious leaders and elected officials: Set an example. Don’t eventually acknowledge government-mandated prayers were wrong after legal pressure and/or people of goodwill have eliminated them. Do it now because it’s right.

God is watching.

Steve Warren is the author of “Drat! Mythed Again, Second Thoughts on Utah,” a look at myths, miscalculations and downright awful predictions in Utah history.

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