A lawsuit against the Sussex County Council in Delaware alleges that by reciting the Lord’s Prayer before meetings, the council “has publicly aligned itself with a single faith” in violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause. During a hearing in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, however, the county’s attorney argued that the prayer isn’t necessarily just a Christian one.
Attorney J. Scott Shannon told U.S. District Court Judge Leonard P. Stark that although the Lord’s Prayer is mostly associated with Christianity it was first spoken by a Jew, Delaware Online reports.
“[Jesus] was not offering a Christian prayer in the Christian tradition because no Christian tradition existed,” Shannon said. He also argued that the prayer, which contains no specific mention of Jesus Christ in it, contains language that is fitting for other faiths, and is not required to be “inoffensive to all” or “all-inclusive,that ” anyways.
According to court documents, the Lord’s Prayer has been the invocation of choice at Sussex County Council meetings since 1971.
Alex Luchenitser, an attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, spoke on behalf of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit – four Delaware residents who feel that the saying of the Lord’s Prayer at Sussex County Council meetings is offensive.
Luchenitser argued that the opening words of the prayer – “Our Father” – indicate that it is a Christian prayer because it implicitly refers to Jesus.
“That’s a Christian way of referring to Jesus,” Luchenitser said, according to Delaware Online. “This is not something reasonable people disagree over.”
via The Lord’s Prayer Is Not Exclusively Christian, Attorney Tells Judge, Christian News.
The other side also knows not of what it speaks. The Father is NOT a reference to Jesus! The Son is NOT the Father. That’s a denial of the Trinity.
The “Lord” of the Lord’s Prayer, though is Jesus, according to the Holy Spirit. And the Father He addresses is His Father, who is the Christian deity. And the prayer is in the New Testament, the Christian Scripture. And it’s a staple of Christian worship and devotion. So, yes, it’s a Christian prayer.
If the pro-prayer faction wins, would it be worth it, if victory involves denying the meaning of what is being prayed? This principle applies to those who insist on putting up Christian symbols–nativity scenes, Christmas trees– on public property during Christmas with the argument that Christmas is a secular holiday. In cases like these, to win is to lose.
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