Editor,

Pastor Lawler should feel perfectly free to pray privately or in his church to whatever imaginary deity he adores.

He has no right, however, to prosthelytize his faith to a captive audience gathered for the secular business of running the city’s government.

Theocracy has been abolished in the United States when the founders wrote the Constitution. Religion and government do not mix well.

We may need all the help we can get to maintain our democracy, but disrespecting the non-religious in a public forum is not one of them.

It is merely divisive and undermines a sense of community. The council should stick to its secular duties and let the pastors preach to the choir in their houses of worship.

Douglas Schiebel

Port Luidlow