Prayer at City Council

   For someone who believes as strongly in separation of church and state as I do, praying at the Chesapeake City Council Tuesday night was a bit of an odd thing any way.  But, then I heard a group of pastors were going to protest the "new invocation policy."  I had received this new policy on a letter outlining the procedures for that evening.  The policy did not seem too restrictive to me.  Then I got nervous.  "Am I not seeing everything here?" I kept asking myself.  I even talked to Holly Holman at the Baptist Joint Committee to make sure I was thinking correctly.  She advised me to be a "good guest."  My wife said for me to "just do it."
  The Deputy Clerk Sandy Esry, Mayor Krasnoff, Alderman Bettie Ritter and others were very gracious hosts.  There were a number of pastors there, which made me a bit nervous.  Then I remembered it was on TV - real nervous.  Everything went fine - short and sweet makes a good public prayer.
  In my nervous preparation, I came across a sermon by George W. Truett on the BJC website.  This sermon was given on May 16, 1920 on the steps of the US Capitol in Washington DC.  I had heard it discussed before, but one paragraph caught my eye again:
"Baptists have one consistent record concerning liberty throughout all their long and eventful history.  They have never been a party to oppression of conscience.  They have forever been the unwavering champions of liberty, both religious and civil.  Their contention now, is, and has been, and please God, must ever be, that it is the natural and fundamental and indefeasible right of every human being to worship God or not, according to the dictates of his conscience, and, as long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others, he is to be held accountable alone to God for all religious beliefs and practices.  Our contention is not for mere toleration, but for absolute liberty.  There isa a wide difference between toleration and liberty.  Toleration implies that somebody falsely claims the right to tolerate.  Toleration is a concession, while liberty is a right.  Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle.  Toleration is a gift from man, while liberty is a gift from God.  It is the consistent and instistent contention of our Baptist people, always and everywhere, that religion must be forever voluntary and uncoerced, and that it is not the prerogative of any power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, to compel men to conform to any religious creed or form of worship, or to pay taxes for the support of a religious organization to which they do not believe.  God wants free worshippers and no other kind."
Now, if we would have really lived this idea of liberty as consistently as Truett said, our country would be a different place.  Let us not stop trying to live it out today!
God be with you in the Journey!
Kevin