Atheist Ireland has today sent the following letter to all of the members of the respective Committees on Procedure and Privilege of both the Dail and the Seanad.
Dear ——————-,
We are writing to you as a member of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges to request that the Oireachtas cease the practice of starting daily business with the prayer: “Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our actions by Thy holy inspirations and carry them on by Thy gracious assistance; that every word and work of ours may always begin from Thee, and by Thee be happily ended; through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Seanad to vote today to add silent reflection before daily prayer
Irish Senators will be asked today to vote that they must stand for 30 seconds of silent reflection each morning, before they continue the current practice of praying to the Christian God, asking that god to direct their actions so that every word and work of theirs may begin and end with that god through Christ their Lord.
This is another ‘Irish solution to an Irish problem’, which avoids facing up to the actual issue (in this case, of whether the State should pray and enforce praying), and leaves it to future politicians to address the issue properly.
The objection to a daily State prayer is quite simple. Senators as individual citizens are perfectly entitled to pray as much as they want. But when a particular prayer is put on the formal agenda of the Senate, it then becomes the State itself that is both praying and enforcing prayer, and this infringes on both the concept of a modern secular Republic, and the human right to freedom of conscience of the Senators.
Read More »