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This was the first part of the agenda for the City Commission's December 2, 2014 meeting:

Preston Smith of American Atheists showed up at the podium to give the invocation. Here is what I found when using Google to define "invocation." It also shows the use of the word in print over time which I found interesting.

Typically, these invocations are given by a variety of local clergy and have not exclusively been from mainstream Christian faiths. Sometimes the people scheduled for the invocation do not show up and someone from the dais offers an invocation, or prayer.

When I first saw the agenda and who was to give the invocation last week, I thought how is an atheist going to "invoke" a higher power, but it turns out he did a pretty good job listing many deities and gods of all types. Of course, in our society, if you allow one faith in, you must allow all faiths in. And that includes those with no faith in particular, or those of any faith, belief or tradition. And if a local government prevents someone from "invoking", then it could create grounds for a lawsuit by preventing someone from expressing their rights to freedom of speech and expression. These issues tend to come up around the holidays related to the use of public land and property for religious displays of any kind. Thus, we have the current situation related to such displays in Florida's capitol building.

As long as we are examining this issue, I thought that it would be helpful to check out what other local municipalities' practices are as it relates to invocations. I went to various municipal websites and generally looked for the most recent regular meeting agenda of the governing body. This is what I found. Lake Worth is not a unique example, but some do it differently than others. I found that most have an invocation as part of their regular agenda.

West Palm Beach:

 

Includes an invocation as part of its regular meeting.

Greenacres:

 

No invocation as part of the regular agenda.

Palm Springs:

Includes an invocation as part of its regular agenda.

Town of Palm Beach:

Includes an invocation.

Palm Beach Gardens:

No invocation as part of regular agenda.

Jupiter:

 

Includes an invocation.

Boynton Beach:

Includes an invocation.

Delray Beach:

Includes an invocation.

Boca Raton:

Includes an invocation.

The Boca Raton example is interesting. They have a cool widget on their website that allows you to view video of past meetings and then you can embed that video in another website. This is a very useful tool. It also allows you to share just that portion of the meeting with your audience, which is another nice feature. Here it is as it relates to a recent invocation from the November 25, 2014 meeting.

As you can see, they do it differently than Lake Worth in that the invocation is given by one of the elected officials. This duty is probably rotated to different members over various meetings. The Palm Beach County Commission also does it this way. Other communities cited above may also use this method in their meetings. It is one way to control the message, however it seems to me that this is ripe for a challenge and there are some that are making efforts to do that now.

I think it is important to realize that the other part of the freedom of speech equation is the right not to listen to something as well. If you read the comments on the YouTube video from Tuesday night, some take issue with members of the Commission leaving the room during Mr. Smith's time at the podium. Some are saying there is an issue there since doing so eliminated the quorum established for the meeting. It seems to me that once the meeting is called to order, a quorum is only necessary when a vote needs to be taken. There was no action required during or after the invocation, so I don't really think that applies. However, others seem to think so.

I encourage you to read the comments left under the video on YouTube. The discussion drifted into an argument between atheists and agnostics, and all the shades of gray in between.

I don't think that we have seen the last of this issue and it may come down to rethinking the composition of our regular City Commission agenda. Other local governments may want to do the same.