Invocations acceptable at government meetings

I wish to voice an alternate position to that in a letter posted on June 29 expressing displeasure at a chaplain's invocation at a county board meeting in DuPage County.

The writer of that letter stated that "the Founding Fathers of our nation set certain rules regarding religious freedom to guard against government infringement." However, those rules were not intended by those same Founding Fathers to "also work the other way around" as the writer indicated.

On the contrary, at the time of the founding of this nation, there was no such intention that God be kept out of our secular/governmental activities. This message comes through clearly in both of the following quotes from George Washington and John Adams, respectively, which were printed in this newspaper on the 4th of July: "It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor." And: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

In other words, our Constitution presupposes that U.S. citizens already adhere to societal behaviors of a "moral and religious people." It simply won't work for a society of people who don't believe in and don't already live according to such standards.

Granted, our government may not show a preference for any particular religion over another. However, it is still legal and acceptable (and desirable to people of religious faith) to invoke the blessings and the guidance of Almighty God at any governmental activities.

Tom Figiel

Roselle