Tulsa Interfaith Alliance

This is whats happening

Tulsa Interfaith Alliance

We held a forum this last thursday about sacred ceremonies/secular ceremonies. This is a second forum we have had about this topic. Three particular issues have warranted this debate in Oklahoma

1. A bill in the Oklahoma house is being considered to build a statue with the ten commandments on the okc capitol.

2. The tulsa city council meetings begin each meeting with a prayer. A few years ago it was allowed that leaders from different faith communities could come and offer a prayer and a rotation would start. But on most days you will hear a christian sectarian prayer.

3. Upon the BOK opening a multi-cultural festival was held that included different denominations to say a prayer that was supposed to be non-sectarian.

The panel included two lawyers, a school admin, and a senior unitarian minister. One end of the debate was that a wall should exist between religion and government affairs. The BOK center had two guidelines for the prayer ceremony. Keep it non-sectarian and every faith is invited. 3 denominations included sectarian prayers( two christian and the Islamic society) Gred Bledsoe argued that the wall is falling down and the government should be neutral. The government was not neutral because just by having religious communities say a prayer they favored religion. More often than not non-sectarian prayers become sectarian.

The other side was: Rev Marlin Lavanhar argued back by saying by not having the religious ceremony you are favoring no religion over religion and that is still not being neutral. He does not believe government can be neutral and the festival reflected the culture and interest of the community therefore it was appropriate to have prayer ceremonies at the event. But his stance on the city council meetings he believes that there is no need for a prayer to open up the meeting.

So a lot of nonsense broke out form the audience. An atheist complained about not being represented even though the tulsa interfaith alliance includes that community and the BOK center did not exclude the atheist community. But what would an atheist have to say? His argument was I do not want to listen to other prayers at a government funded festival. Even though the prayer ceremony was only 15 minutes long. I don't mind hearing things like that at a multi cultural festival but not at a city council meeting or a statue on the capitol. The wall is breaking down it seems like Oklahoma is becoming more exclusionist in its policies. The city agrees on a festival with prayer to reflect the culture of the community and has arbitrary rules like non-sectarian prayer only, but it isn't met. City council meetings agree to allow all faith communities to say a prayer but only christian prayers are heard. Ten commandment statue today, English as official language tomorrow, who knows whats next.

The tulsa community has a lot of passionate faith goers and these debates are becoming more and more interesting. I'm really glad i am 2^nd VP! (whatever that means!) I'll also be a counselor at a leadership youth interfaith weekend camp coming up soon. more to report then!