Give thanks to whom?

The culture wars took a strange turn this week in Tulsa when it was announced that an atheist would give the opening prayer at the Tulsa City Council meeting.

Dan Nerren, founder of the Humanist Association of Tulsa, said he’s likely the first to offer a secular invocation at the meeting, which typically begins with a prayer offered by a local religious leader.

Nerren said his prayer wouldn’t invoke any deity, but would invoke … the council. That may be small comfort to Tulsans who are all too familiar with the history of division and ineffectiveness on the council in past years.

It’s one thing for a person to declare himself an atheist, and something else entirely to put one’s faith in the ability of fallible politicians who constantly prove their fallibility. History suggests that’s a true leap of faith.

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