The Invocation: An Opening for Political Statements

It's known the native people who lived on this continent before Europeans stole it had meetings, apparently long meetings and lots of them. I've never heard if they talked to their spiritual beings before the meetings. I suppose the practice of talking to invisible beings before meetings came from Europe. It would be good if it was sent back. 

There is a story today about a preacher who took advantage of the invocation to rail at Republicans. In his prayer he denounced the Trump practice of rounding up immigrants and shipping the who knows where. Republicans, needless to say, are angry.

It brought back memories of my sixteen years as a mayor. Our city was a destination and many large conventions and annual meetings were held there. Often, the Mayor was invited to give a brief welcome. While the welcome remarks were usually early in the opening session and it was permissible to slip out afterwards it always came after the innovation. I think the invocation, a few comments and a prayer, were most often given by the pastor of a local church, maybe the church of a committee member. I was often seated next to the pastors and enjoyed chatting with them. But sometimes it was painful to hear some riff off into Jesus talk when I knew there Jewish, Hindu and whatever people in the crowd. 

At national mayor's meetings it was common to have the invocational prayer take off into the preacher's favorite cause. The prayer might say, "And God, let these mayors recognize the homeless in their communities and find the resources to help them...," or " may these mayors take on the cause of inequality and unfairness in our society." I should have done a study of the prayers to record the most frequently mentioned causes.

Meetings need not include a Mayor's welcome nor an invocation from the clergy. Customs die hard.