The third January meeting was about 1 hour long. The Board of Commissioners met to approve the board rules that were discussed last week. Since the rules were already discussed, this meeting was short.
I voted to approve the rules.
Commissioner Comments
My comment at the end was short. I thanked all the commissioners for continuing to support prayer at our board meetings.
It is important that we continue this practice and ask God to give us wisdom as elected leaders. For decades, across our country, there has been a push to eliminate God from government, the public square, and the workplace. As Christians, we must resist this effort and keep God front and center, acknowledging our weakness and His strength.
In 2024, a member of the Satanic Temple (which openly mocks God and Christianity) requested to deliver the opening invocation before a meeting. Immediately after the request was made, the Freedom From Religion Foundation contacted me demanding we remove prayer from county meetings entirely. I think they contacted me the same day as the member of the Satanic Temple asked to pray, or the same day the news articles broke.
I immediately replied back and said we would continue having prayer at meetings, and that I had no intention of adopting any policy that would eliminate prayer. It is interesting that the Freedom From Religion Foundation was queued up and ready to submit their request. (The FFRF is a nonprofit organization that advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists, and seeks to remove prayer from government.)
Perhaps they’ve had success using this tactic in the past. Some people argued it would be easier to simply remove prayer, instead of upholding my commitment to the First Amendment and free speech. Bottom line, prayer is needed in the public square, and no amount of mockery, lawfare, or intimidation should remove it.
World if Ideas
A prior week I mentioned a quote by President Lincoln:
“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
—Abraham Lincoln
Elected officials operate in the realm of ideas, in politics and government. As John Stonestreet says, “Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.”
Our decisions impact 300,000 people living in Ottawa County. My promise to the people is to continue using my Biblical worldview and common sense to prioritize freedom, and to be an example of faith and courage in the public square.
“We must be ruthless with ideas, but gentle with people.”
—Father Robert Sirico
I am thankful for the opportunity to represent District 5 and the people of Ottawa County.
