Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :








Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Out Came The Prayer Rug!



So as we were about to begin the invocation prior to a very heavy school board meeting,  one of the individuals in the front row took a prayer mat, set it right next to the podium, and began mumbling and chanting incomprehensible gibberish as our invited pastor was trying to give a really heartfelt Christian invocation.

The assembled guests in the front row were visibly impacted by this spectacle.
(A part of me was surprised he didn’t attempt to light an incense candle start beating a drum or tambourine.)

Talk about a distraction! 

I was trying to listen carefully to what the minister was saying, but my attention was diverted by this stunt being performed rudely at the same time as the invocation.  And the chanting was loud enough that I could hear  in up on the dais, I could just imagine the nuisance level the poor minister had to deal with as he tried to deliver his prayer while that chanting and grunting was going on in his ear.

This guy claims he simply wants to be included in our invocation rotation, and that he will be respectful.
But his actions speak louder than his words as this is two months running where he himself has been disrespectful.
I just wonder what a guy like this is really after….. Wait a minute, I got it.  Attention, that’s what he’s after. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have been quick to say that non-Christians wanting to deliver the invocation is only to draw attention to themselves. You also say the guy referenced in this post was "mumbling and chanting incomprehensible gibberish" and claim the pastor was trying to give a "heartfelt" invocation.

First, what is gibberish to you may have been "heartfelt" to him. Just because what he was doing wasn't Christian doesn't make it any less heartfelt.

Second, I partially agree with you about the attention bit. However, non-Christians are doing this to call attention to the fact that we are continually being marginalized by the Christian majority, and to call attention to the absurdness of actually having an invocation of any sort in governmental meetings at all. This is not about calling attention to themselves.

Anonymous said...

Your bigotry would be unbelievable were it that you did not display it so often. I guess I'm grateful that you and your ilk are confined to a relatively irrelevant part of the country, and that your outdated beliefs and activities won't influence the rest of the US at large.