Cobb Holds Prayer Breakfast, Group Protests Outside
The event coincided with today's National Day of Prayer.
Photos
About 850 people representing Cobb County businesses, churches and government agencies attended the 27th annual Cobb County Prayer Breakfast this morning.
The breakfast was held at the Cobb Galleria Centre and featured Bible and devotional readings and praise and worship performances.
The Cobb County Prayer Breakfast is held annually to celebrate the National Day of Prayer, an observation enacted by President Harry Truman in 1952. The prayer breakfast in Cobb County got its start in 1985 when a group of business and community leaders held the first breakfast to observe the National Day of Prayer. In 1988, Cobb County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution endorsing the breakfast.
This year’s breakfast included musical performances by Stanley Allyn Owen and a bagpipe performance of “Amazing Grace” by Winter Taylor. Shan Cooper, vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, was the keynote speaker.
“I’m grateful because I know that but for God’s grace, I wouldn’t stand here before you today,” Cooper said. “Who would have predicted that a little girl, a little country girl, from Anniston, Alabama would be educated by some of the finest institutions, work for the actual best company in the world, have had the opportunity to travel the world, and reside in a community like Cobb County where people are not afraid to publicly and boldly honor God?”
Some Cobb County residents said they wish breakfast attendees weren’t honoring God so publicly and boldly.
Five representatives from the Atlanta Freethought Society, a Smyrna-based group that promotes life without religion, protested the Cobb County Prayer Breakfast.
“We’re here today because government officials ... are standing up and praying that they may be seen as men,” said Ed Buckner, chair of the activism task force at AFS. He mentioned former Gov. Roy Barnes and county Commissioner Woody Thompson being present.
“They’re hypocrites," he added. "They’re not here because they want to worship God. They could go to any church they want to. They could pray in the closet as the Bible says they should, but they’re here making a big show of it.”
Atlanta Freethought Society members said the presence of government officials at the prayer breakfast violates the separation of church and state.
“They’re not violating it by having an event,” Buckner said. “They’re violating it by having it out of a county office.”
Virgil Moon, director of the Cobb County Support Services Agency and president of the Cobb County Prayer Breakfast Committee Inc., runs a voicemail-only landline that provides information about the breakfast out of his office. The Marietta Daily Journal reported that while Moon’s staff does answer questions regarding the breakfast, they do so outside regular office hours and are paid by the prayer breakfast committee.
“Virgil Moon seems to think that, well the Cobb prayer breakfast foundation is paying these employees so that makes it OK,” Buckner said. “What he doesn’t understand is it’s not a technical matter of whether they’re using some private funds to pay everybody. They’re giving the appearance that this is a government-sponsored event, that the government is making decisions about religion.”
While no members of government or political agencies participated in the prayer breakfast program, several had tables at the breakfast, including the Cobb County Republican Party, Cobb County Board of Commissioners, Marietta Police Department, Cobb County schools, Judge Tain Kell from Cobb County superior court and Cobb County's county manager.
Moon told The MDJ that the board of commissioners table was a “comp table” and that the county did not pay to reserve it.
Joe Jerkins, Austell's mayor, and a couple other Austell officials were present.
“I’ve been coming for a number of years,” Jerkins said. “There are always good speakers. Charlton Heston came one year and was very good.”
Nancy Ingram
2:55 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
I think it takes a big stand by public figures to attend a Prayer Breakfast. Leave it to the "naysayers" for always protesting about something. Sounds like they should have put down their signs and nasty attitudes and joined in with the others and pray!
Glenn Tabor
6:37 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
Part 1
First off, those who use the phrase “separation of church and state” as a basis for removing any hint of Christianity from public places have no idea what the phrase really means. The separation of church and state prohibits the Government from establishing a state religion as the ONLY religion. The framers lived in a time when the King (or who ever was in charge) decided what religion the entire country was going to follow. Check your history, and you will see this to be the fact. Take the time to read the WHOLE Constitution and you will gain a greater understanding of the spirit in which it was written. The separation of church and state was intended to prohibit a state religion.
With that being said, I wish to exercise my right to freely practice my religion. It is a tenant, not just a obscure tenuous thought, but a foundation truth of Christianity that Christ is at the foundation of all government. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: ...” (Isaiah 9:6) God sets up the kingdoms and brings them down again. “And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:” (Daniel 2:21)
We all know the famous phrase of Patrick Henry “Give me liberty or give me death!” But have you ever seen the whole quote?
Glenn Tabor
6:38 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
Part 2
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall not fight alone. God presides over the destinies of nations. The battle is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! Give me liberty or give me death!”
Whether or not you agree or believe is irrelevant... My faith dictates that my God rules and reigns. If you try to take that core concept and count it as naught by taking prayer out of all public/civic venues, and by taking the ten commandments out of every place of government business... then you are in fact prohibiting me from freely worshiping my God in the way that He has commanded me too... and violating my right to practice my faith.
That is the essence of the separation of church and state... the state cannot prohibit me from freely worshiping in a way that my faith dictates... just as much as it cannot force you to conform to a particular faith.
Glenn Tabor
6:38 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
Part 3
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Article I, The Bill of Rights
Thank God you have the freedom to speak out as you do... any place else you could be shot for sedition.
As for those protesters... I will be praying for them, both in and out of my prayer closet. And they cannot stop me!
Solomon
9:26 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
As an atheist, I really do not have a problem with people having their silly 'prayer groups' (i am truly not being sarcastic), however, as soon as members of the govt. get involved, or start supporting them financially, I will be banging on their door at 4 a.m. telling them they are wrong.
Glenn Tabor
9:07 am on Friday, May 6, 2011
So, members of the government can't freely practice their faith, simply because they are employees of the government that gives them that freedom... interesting paradox my friend. But isn't that also kind of hypocritical?
John Marshall Miller
9:59 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
It's interesting how atheists use the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly provisions of the US Constitution for their own views yet try to prevent others with a different view from assembling and expressing their personal beliefs. Congress has yet to make a law establishing religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The US Constitution is silent regarding the idea of separation of church and state.
Other than prohibiting Congress from making laws establshing religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof the Constitution says nothing. To me, some try to twist and bend the meaning of portions of the Constitution to suit their own prejudiced agenda. I respect folks' right to disbelieve that a God exists but not their right to dictate to me or to other believers what we can and cannot do privately or publicly. The best way for atheists to deal with their dislike is to ignore those who have an opposite stand in the issue. ---- JOHN MARSHALL MILLER of Lithia Springs.