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Mayors' Prayer Breakfast canceled after mayors pull out
Last year, the Mayors' Prayer Breakfast of Washington County, Oregon, became a small controversy. This year, it became a much larger one. And while the controversy grows, the prayer breakfast itself is now dead.

At a Beaverton City Council meeting last May, councilor Cathy Stanton noted the prayer breakfast, scheduled two days later. "She explained this was sponsored by a group of businessmen in the area and not by any local jurisdiction," say the minutes for that meeting. "She noted anyone was welcome to attend."

But councilor Fred Ruby found the invitation "concerning," and said it was inappropriate and unconstitutional for city officials to promote attendance at the breakfast. The meeting itself, he said, was "insensitive to non-Christian citizens" and probably illegal.

The following week, after the prayer breakfast had taken place, the debate continued. This time, it was new resident and local United Church of Christ pastor Mary Sue Evers who complained. "She said Jesus offered a whole-hearted inclusion and acceptance, and she believed to exclude others in his name was not to be as Christian as possible," say the minutes. "She suggested in this community many forms of spirituality could be honored, and she hoped events like this would be inclusive of all the diversity in Beaverton."

As it turns out, this had been Ruby's concern all along. Responding to another citizen's challenge to his comments the previous week,

Ruby said he originally was concerned because the Mayor's Executive Assistant was on the planning committee for the event and he observed promotional posters for the event posted in City Hall.  He said he resolved the issues with the Mayor; the Mayor assured him city staff had not worked on the program on city time.  He said the Mayor had instructed staff to remove unauthorized posters.  He said he accepted that the program met the requirements of the Constitution; whether or not it violated the spirit of the Constitution was a subject of principled differences of opinion.  He said the most important issue was that the program should reach out to all faiths in the community.

Let's summarize. Critics of last year's event conceded that the prayer breakfast was not a government-sponsored event. However, they wanted to pressure the Christian group to change its theology, which accepts ecumenical but not interfaith prayer.

Forcing the issue
This year, that pressure escalated. Beaverton Mayor Rob Drake, citing "controversy about the event's inclusiveness last year," invited a local Jewish rabbi to offer the event's opening prayer, and a Muslim leader to offer the closing prayer.

The organizers, the Beaverton-Tigard Chapter of the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship & Concerned Citizens, voted 7-to-1 to rescind the invitation to the Muslim.

"The Muslims are not part of the Judeo-Christian tradition," communications director Peter Reding told The Oregonian. Board members, he said, were uncomfortable with the idea of praying to Allah.

"It's just broken my heart," Drake said. "I thought we had found openness and the ability to honor diversity."

Drake, who was scheduled to speak at the breakfast, said he wouldn't attend at all. This was followed by similar withdrawals from other mayors and city officials throughout Washington County. Another speaker, Oregon Air National Guard Col. Garry Dean, also pulled out.

"The Oregon National Guard does not and cannot support an organization that excludes others based on religion," said spokeswoman Misti Mazzia. "When it comes to any discrimination against anyone, that's a no-brainer in the military."

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April (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48