FL School Board, Fearing Satanists, Nixes Christian Invocations at Meetings
By Hemant Mehta, November 20, 2019

Back in August, during a meeting of the Flagler County School Board in Florida, an unannounced and unexpected speaker began delivering a prayer in front of the crowd. Pastor Jeanine Clontz told everyone to bow their heads in prayer as they began the school year.

The school board’s chair, Janet McDonald, soon said she was responsible for inviting Clontz, and she did it in the hope that it would begin a “new tradition.”

Her new tradition would be illegal, of course. School board meetings are not church services, and courts have repeatedly said there’s a difference between those and city council meetings where invocations are now permitted. More to the point, what McDonald wanted was to make the meeting uncomfortable for atheists, Muslims, Jews, and everyone else who’s not part of the Christian majority. What the hell was she thinking?

The board’s attorney got them to add further discussion of the matter to a future meeting. She clearly need some time to explain how, if Christian prayers were allowed, then Satanic ones would have to be allowed as well.

There have, in fact, been multiple meetings where the prayers were discussed since August. But yesterday, the board decided to officially end the practice before it could ever formally begin. It’s the right move.