I mentioned last month that the Brevard County Commissioners in Florida had adopted a new invocation policy that finally appeared to be inclusive of non-Christian groups. They needed to be extra careful they weren’t violating the law because their previous invocation policy, from a few years earlier, essentially limited the prayers to Christians. They were sued over the matter and it resulted in penalties costing the county roughly half a million dollars.
That new policy went into effect this past week, and the first invocation was explicitly Christian. But when the Commission meets again on January 26, the invocation speaker will be David Williamson, an atheist who represents the Central Florida Freethought Community. He also happened to play a key role in the lawsuit that ended the previous invocation policy.
Seems that only lawsuits motivate local evangelical municipalities and school boards to actually follow the Constitution.