I watched with great amusement Jason Miller offered a “satanic” invocation to the Washoe County Commission this week.. There was a lot of outrage, someone shouted “Jesus” during his speech and several people (including the founder of this disaster) left the room in protest. It was a delicious display of hypocrisy.
Commissioner Clara Andriola suggested this terrible practice and then had the nerve to walk away because someone dared to have a different religious opinion, which is exactly the problem with forcing religion into public events. If you don’t like satanic invocations, don’t open shared spaces to public prayers.
As a non-believer, I have been subjected to non-consensual preaching for decades. I was master of ceremonies at a government conference for several years and had to call for the opening prayer as if I were a 15th century imam. I’ve tried to reason with the organizers for a decade, but when you’re five to one, Christians can just force themselves on you, like religious rape.
I could be almost sympathizing with self-proclaimed Christan who I saw in the background of the public video. Watching him squirm reminded me of the thousands of times I have personally been subjected to unwanted Christian prayers in common government settings.
The situation has gotten worse in our community in recent years, as a few loud, misinformed, self-proclaimed Christians impose their coercive (and often bizarre) beliefs on a majority of the public who do not share them. In my opinion, this is not true Christianity, but rather the ultra-conservative, anti-gay side of Christianity. It’s Christianity that worships Trump, guns, and America way above frail old Jesus. It is Christianity reinvented under the name of the Dukes of Hazzard.
I would also like to offer consideration to all Hindus, Muslims, Jews and other minority faiths who do not subscribe to American Rambo-Jesus. That seems to be the whole point of invoking “Satanists.” If conservatives do not want to be subjected to the invocations of Satanists, they should stop imposing their religion on other faiths (Writers note: they will absolutely not see this logic).
The commission is not the only government agency under attack by extremist religious fundamentalists. Although we have hundreds of churches here, we only have a handful of libraries. The same conservative Christians offended by satanic invocations attempt to remove from the public library any book or event that offends their version of Christianity. They want to turn this entire community into their church and are terrified of competing fairly in the marketplace of religious ideas.
The worst part about this recent trend of non-consensual religious worship is that Nevada is one of the least religious states in America. 66% Christian. As a lifelong Nevadan, I have always loved our secular ways with our gambling, drinking, and free, unapologetic freedom. Our fundamental freedom to live our values is at stake.
If Christians want public prayer, they will hear from people with very different opinions and values. Satanists, atheists, cultists and weirdos of all stripes will always live among us (hooray!). And they will also have their say. If this reality is too painful, I offer a simple solution: eliminate public prayer and keep religion out of government, as the Constitution requires. If we can separate church and state, we will not need to invoke Satan to protect us all from death by hypocrisy.
Edwin Lyngar is a resident of Reno.
