BUCKHANNON — Rev. Janice Hill, one of the featured speakers at the recent “Hate Has No Home Here” event, called for a ban on prayer in city council meetings. She stated in her closing remarks that a city council meeting is not an appropriate place to offer prayer.
“I’m going to say one more thing, then I am going to close us with a prayer,” Rev. Hill continued in Wesley Chapel, “because it’s an appropriate place to have a prayer! It’s not a city council meeting!”
She then began to nod her head dramatically, as the crowd cheered enthusiastically.
“You don’t use the hymns that are precious to me that we sing on Sunday morning; you don’t use those to intimidate people. And you don’t say prayers that are precious to me and that I have invested my entire life in, you don’t use those at a city council meeting. And guess what, we won’t conduct city business in church. “
Christians are not to leave government up to the ungodly. They should vote and enter into local, state and national government to promote good leadership, assure sound morals, and godly principles. God was the original creator of human government, as stated in Romans 13:1-6.
The idea that God has no place in local government is just another liberal example of “separation between church and state.” This phrase is not found in the Constitution of the United States. It is contained in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association. He was concerned with keeping government out of the church, not the church out of government.