Silencing prayer allows just one voice
All faiths should be represented in City Hall
Silencing prayer in city council chambers is not silencing the voice of belief. It is privileging the voice of one belief system to the exclusion of other competing voices. Disallowing prayer in City Hall is allowing only the voice of secular humanism. Secular humanism is a belief system. It is a belief system that says that humanity is the measure of all things. It is a belief system that says only what can be known by human reason and science is acceptable knowledge. Secular humanism either implicitly or explicitly also says that revealed knowledge is untenable, unknowable, unacceptable. Accordingly, secular humanism reacts against religion, attempting to silence the many voices of different religious traditions. Secular humanism would have a world evacuated of religion.
Secular humanism fails miserably as a model for social structuring. It fails for two important reasons. First, it assumes that we are all the same, which we are not. Second, it assumes that silencing differences puts everyone on a level playing field. What happens in secular society is not an equal playing field. Rather, society’s dominant race and gender are favoured and minorities and their different ways, voices, and religions are suppressed. The values, norms, and power of the dominant race and gender prevail. The social model that has been operative to great success in Canada is one of pluralism. Pluralism affirms the varieties of race, religion, culture, and gender. Rather than the false assumption that one secular voice can speak for everyone, pluralism affirms the varieties of voices that each speak in individual ways. Pluralism is affirmed by allowing interfaith prayers in City Hall. Secularism is affirmed as the sole dominant voice by silencing interfaith prayers in City hall.
There are other problems with a society evacuated of the voices of religion. One leading problem is that the message will be communicated that religion is not an acceptable system of knowing. The message will be conveyed that religion is secondary to human reason and science. It may not be the intention of secular humanists to say this explicitly. But by silencing the voices of religions in the public sphere, what else will be understood? If religions are denied a voice, it will seem to be implied that the voices of religion are not important, not valid. It will seem implied that only the voices of human reason and science matter, not the voices of faith.
For believers, including believers in secular humanism, faith is perhaps the deepest value held. It matters most to believers. Silencing the voice of a person’s most deeply cherished values does a great disservice to human expression. It disallows discourse on what matters most.
In Edmonton, traditionally, the voices of religions had been permitted in public spaces. City Hall opened their sessions with prayers from different faith traditions. No one tradition alone offered opening devotions. Instead, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other faiths of the many who call Edmonton home offered prayers in City Hall. The message thus conveyed is that the many cultures and faiths that make up Edmonton are represented by a voice in City Hall. The message conveyed is that Edmonton welcomes its diverse cultures.
Why should one voice prevail over all the many voices that make up Edmonton? Why should secular humanism be the only belief system that City Hall allows? Why should a voice that denies and suppresses religions be the prevailing voice of Edmonton’s City Hall? Why should the pluralism that makes Edmonton great be denied in favour of forced, false homogeneity?
Every perspective on faith should be represented in City Hall. It is only just and fair that interfaith prayers continue to be spoken in City Hall, as well as no prayers on occasion, to give everyone in Edmonton a voice in City Hall. Rev. Dr. David Fekete is the president of the Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education and Action