The
phrases the council members and many in the audience repeat are those of the Lord’s Prayer. It is a practice that raised few eyebrows for years, but now faces a federal
court challenge from a group of Sussex residents.
The county has argued that the Lord’s Prayer is not an exclusively Christian prayer, and its themes are universal; thus, its public recitation by a government body is
legal.
In a recent court filing, an attorney defending the county wrote: “It is as generic and universal a prayer as can be crafted, inoffensive in its non-denominational textual statements of supplication and belief, and as all-inclusive as a prayer may reasonably be.”
…
“In offering the Lord’s Prayer, there is no specific call to, or statement of belief in, Jesus Christ, Allah, Yahweh, Ik Onkar, Brahman, Ahura Mazda, Gaia, L. Ron Hubbard, the Baha’i Unfathomable Mystery or any other specific or sectarian deity, prophet or saint,” wrote Wilmington attorney Joseph Shannon, representing the county.
…
[However,] The Rev. George Blasick, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Seaford, [argued that] the Lord’s Prayer is inherently Christian. In his faith, he noted, the opening of the prayer is uttered by Jesus, the son of God.
