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For Immediate Release:
(Des Moines, IA, January 2nd, 2011)
For the third year in a row Iowa atheists are raising concerns with the Iowa Legislature about the practice of opening each daily session with a prayer. The issue, according to Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, is the use of prayer to open each day’s session and also the use of taxpayer dollars to reimburse the invited clergy’s expenses. The letter is being sent to all 150 State Representatives
and Senators before the 2011 legislative session begins. This year Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers is coordinating with the national Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF.org) in the effort to remove prayer from government sanctioned events and sessions. According to Randy Henderson, President of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, this letter is part of an ongoing campaign by the group to raise public awareness about the presence of atheists in the Iowa community. The group feels that opening each day with a prayer is a governmental endorsement of religion over non-religion and further, because the prayers are often sectarian in nature, of one religion over all others. “This kind of action does not represent all theistic and nontheistic citizens in Iowa and also provides preferential treatment to certain religious sects.” He continues, “we hope that this letter signals to our legislators that holding certain religious activities as part of the legislative session is not in the best interest of Iowans and causes more divisiveness in an already divided political landscape”
The legislators, who invite the clergy from their home districts, passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 2 in 2009. This resolution authorizes a payment $10 for each prayer conducted by the clergy member and also reimburses them for their round-trip mileage at the same rate that legislators receive for travel expenses.
This is not a new issue. The controversy caused by opening legislative sessions in Iowa with a prayer goes all the way back the Iowa Constitutional Convention in 1844. When that convention opened there was a heated debate about whether or not to open meetings with prayer. Ultimately, the convention did decide to open with prayers.
IAF’s letter to the legislators demands that prayers be removed from the daily legislative schedule and that no money be spent on invited clergy. The letter points out that IAF does not wish to dictate when the legislators pray, but that prayers are inappropriate and divisive when they are conducted as part of a governmental event.
Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation focused on education and working to provide a community of support and friendship for atheists, freethinkers, secular humanists, agnostics, and other nonreligious people. Past actions include DART bus ads featuring the “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone” during the 2009 Iowa State Fair as well as appearances on local radio stations.
For more information contact:
Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers Jason Kelley, Public Relations Officer 515-537-6520 press@iowaatheists.org |
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Prayer in the Iowa Legislatureposted Feb 15, 2011 6:19 PM by John Fruetel |