LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — A local chapter of an atheist organization is demanding Lake County apologize after chapter leaders said they were discriminated against at a recent commission meeting.
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On Tuesday, a leader of the local Freedom From Religion Foundation, otherwise known as the Central Florida Freethought Community, was invited to give the invocation ahead of the Lake County Commission meeting. He did, offering a secular message of public service and inclusivity.
However, after Joseph Richardson finished, a Christian pastor stepped up to the podium, saying he had been asked to lead the group in prayer.
Freethought Community leaders are now crying foul, saying the pastor was asked to speak because their message was not sufficiently Christian.
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“This Christian prayer, delivered because the invocation Mr. Richardson gave was not sufficiently Christian, was discriminatory, unconstitutional, and a slap in the face to all of Lake County’s non-Christian citizens,” an attorney for the organization wrote in a letter to the county.
Invocations are standard practice at the beginning of many government meetings. Though typically delivered by a Christian priest or pastor, given the makeup of most corners of the country, the Constitution’s First Amendment gives the right for anyone of any belief to deliver one.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s argument lies in the fact that traditionally, only one invocation is given per meeting, and non-Christians aren’t asked to follow up when a Christian prayer is given. By asking for a Christian prayer during every meeting, the county was effectively endorsing Christianity in violation of the Constitution, the group argued.
Group leaders say they’ve encountered it twice before in Central Florida, in Apopka and Eustis. Both times, leaders said, the mistake was not repeated.
Chapter officials also said until now, Lake County has been great to work with.
“I’m saddened to hear that Mr. Richardson felt he was mistreated during the invocation,” said Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks, who chaired the board at the time the invocation was given. “We try to be inclusive and welcoming here in Lake County. It was not my intent to hurt or demean Mr. Richardson’s message. The Central Florida Freethought Community has facilitated the invocation in Lake County four times since May 2021. We would welcome them back if they wish to lead the invocation in the future.”
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Atheist groups nationwide often make it their mission to check local governments to ensure equal treatment is being given to non-Christians in routine circumstances. The Satanic Temple made national headlines when they unveiled a goat-headed statue outside the Arkansas State Capitol in 2018, after legislators allowed a Ten Commandments sculpture to be erected on public property.
A local Satanic Temple chapter pushed to hand out satanic literature in Orange County Schools in 2014 after a Christian group distributed Bibles to students.
Earlier this year, a group sued an elementary school in Pennsylvania after a request to create an “After School Satan Club” to counter a Christian afterschool program was rejected.
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Though they haven’t gone to the courts this time yet, the local Freethought chapter has found success in the legal system before for a similar situation. The group sued Brevard County in 2015 after the county rejected the group’s attempts to deliver an invocation before a commission meeting. The county was fined $490,000 and subsequently stopped allowing invocations altogether.
Chapter leaders said that would be their preferred outcome in Lake County, even without a lawsuit.
“County Commissioners are free to pray privately or to worship on their own time in their own way,” the attorney wrote. “They do not need to worship on taxpayers’ time.”
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