Lorna Dueck is host of Context TV, seen Sundays on Global and Vision TV.
It is not the end of public prayer in Canada after last week's Supreme Court ruling, which determined civic governance must remain neutral ground spiritually. People will still keep praying through their work in government, despite an expensive lesson brought on by the persistence of a mayor and councillors in Saguenay, Que. I would have called this court ruling a godsend, or blessing, but pick any secular word you like: The court has provided a windfall for helping us think through why we bother to pray at all.
An evolving interpretation of freedom of conscience and practise of religion in Canada took place during the nine years this case has been a self-inflicted thorn in the flesh of Saguenay's council. Alain Simoneau, an atheist, declared he suffered "isolation, exclusion and stigmatization" when he watched Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay open council meetings with a prayer asking God to grant the "energy necessary for our deliberations to promote the honour and glory of Your Holy Name and the spiritual and material [well-being] of our city." That prayer cost taxpayers $30,000 in compensatory and punitive damages to Mr. Simoneau, plus the city's legal costs.
By 2008, Saguenay's civic officials dropped promoting God's glory and took a humbler tone; "Almighty God … Grant us the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to allow us to preserve the benefits enjoyed by our city for all to enjoy and so that we may make wise decisions." Nice, but not necessary to be made a bylaw, which called the words not a prayer, but "a tradition to ensure decorum and highlight the importance of the work of the councillors."
So committed was Mayor Tremblay to the tradition, the court record heard him declare, "I'm in this fight because I worship Christ. I want to go to Heaven and it is the most noble fight of my entire life."
We didn't need the Supreme Court justices to tell us that you can't use public office to get to Heaven, and it is an affront to see prayer manipulated to ensure decorum and power. Instead, as John Stackhouse, a professor of theology and culture at Regent College, wrote in The National Post, the Saguenay case affirms that "Canadians agree to keep our public life full of people of various religious convictions and empty of all religious rituals."
This court case helps us think through why and how prayer does belong at all jobs, if Canadians want to take it there. Catholic and Evangelical groups argued in the court that even politicians are free to ask for God's help to deepen their commitment to the neutral state. That is freedom of religion in Canada. After all, political servants are reflected in last month's Angus Reid Institute poll that reports almost nine of 10 Canadians who embrace religion pray on a regular basis.
That's why Tuesday's National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa will have individual members of Parliament hosting tables, exercising their private right to prayer for their jobs and the country. I'm writing from Saskatoon, where hundreds are doing the same with their civic leaders at the Saskatoon Prayer breakfast; there are dozens of these events across the country this time of year.
These are not government sponsored, but organized by citizens – a gathering where people open the doors on their faith and invite every secular friend they have to meet for the well-being of a shared country.
The Supreme Court has not excluded prayer from public life, it's just excluded prayer from being reduced to a divisive, exclusionary government-run ritual.
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EDS NOTE: An earlier version incorrectly said nine out of 10 Canadians pray on a regular basis.