Even though the legal battle was settled last year, the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s invocation policy continues to make headlines.
At the last meeting, one of the petitioners in that lawsuit against the borough, Iris Fontana, delivered an invocation before the meeting on behalf of the local Satanic temple, drawing a small group of protesters to the borough building. And while some assembly members have defended the previous, discriminatory policy, others are ready to be done with it altogether. Assembly member Willy Dunne is sponsoring an ordinance to change borough code by repealing the provision for an invocation. The question would go on the fall ballot as an advisory vote.
“I decided to include the advisory vote because I’ve heard from a lot of people who would like to see the invocation eliminated, and of course we’ve also received testimony from people who would like to see it remain," Dunne said. "I think it would be good to see what the voters think, so I’m just going to put it out there one more time. I’ve made several suggestions over the years; I’ve suggested we do away with the invocation entirely, I’ve suggested we have a non-discriminatory policy, I’ve suggested we follow the state legislature policy, which seems to work well for them.”
And he’s delivered a few invocations himself, sometimes simply observing a moment of silence or guiding the assembly through a brief meditative exercise. When the assembly was forced to adopt a more inclusive policy, the calendar filled up quickly with folks wanting to deliver a brief message. Dunne says he wasn’t surprised by that.
“I know that people under the old policy had been requesting to give invocations and they had been denied and so they were ready to apply again under the new, inclusive policy, so it really wasn’t a surprise to me. It’s been a hot-button issue, a lightning rod issue and lots of people were ready to step up there and give their own invocation.”
But despite that policy change and invocations delivered by atheists, Satanists, Christians and believers in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the issue remains contentious, as evidenced by the protesters at the June 18th meeting.
“I think it’s very unfortunate that it has become so divisive. And the fact that we had a discriminatory policy that eliminated some people and some religious beliefs from giving an invocation was, to me that was totally unacceptable and obviously to the courts it was unacceptable and unconstitutional, so I’m glad we’re not following that unconstitutional policy anymore, but the community seems pretty divided over it. I think the easiest way to address those concerns is just to do away with it. It’s not necessary. It’s something we can start the meeting without and just take care of business instead of spending time on legal battles and spending taxpayer money on court battles and spending time discussing whether or not we should have prayer at the beginning of the meeting, I think we can do without it and just get on with business.”
The courts found for the plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and that cost the borough in excess of $40,000 just in legal fees as determined by the court. Dunne’s ordinance is up for introduction Tuesday. A full public hearing is scheduled for August 6th.