Huntington Beach Hasn’t Got a Prayer Without Her

Debbie Borden can’t fight City Hall, so the Huntington Beach woman has decided to pray for it instead.

At the public-comments portion of each City Council meeting, the soft-spoken homemaker rises to the podium and recites a simple prayer. She’s been doing it since January, when Councilwoman Debbie Cook became mayor and immediately discontinued the traditional invocation at the beginning of each meeting.

Cook’s decision has sparked a passionate controversy in the city about the role of prayer and religion at public meetings. The mayor has been criticized at council meetings and in a flood of letters to local newspapers by residents who think banning the traditional prayer is positively un-Christian.

Despite the heat, Cook is standing firm. “It’s not government’s job to direct people on how to pray and who to pray to; that’s the church’s role,” she said.

Borden, 49, is less strident than some of Cook’s critics. Instead of getting angry, she said, she is trying to do something good for the city. At a recent council meeting, she ended her prayer by asking for “the wisdom and knowledge of our Lord in order to guide our leaders in making decisions for our city.”

She admits she is no public speaker but believes government meetings should include some type of prayer.

“Every time I go up there, I’m very, very nervous,” she said. “Each time it ought to be getting a little bit easier, but it always is an emotional thing.”

Huntington Beach is one of several cities to struggle with prayer during public meetings.

Burbank was sued in 1999 by Jewish Defense League Chairman Irv Rubin after a minister delivered a prayer invoking the name of Jesus Christ at a City Council meeting. Rubin claimed the religious reference was unconstitutional, and a year later a Los Angeles judge ordered Burbank to bar prayers that reflect a specific religion’s beliefs.

Since then, the council has begun each meeting with a nondenominational invocation. In addition, the agenda now warns that sectarian prayer has been deemed unconstitutional.

Burbank is appealing the ruling. The last time the U.S. Supreme Court took up the issue was in 1983, when it upheld the constitutionality of an opening invocation at legislative sessions.

Other cities, such as El Cajon in San Diego County, have substituted a prayer before meetings with a moment of silence.

The Huntington Beach invocation was intended to include different religions, with ministers, rabbis, priests and others sharing the duty. But Cook said the rotation system didn’t always work because religious leaders weren’t always available. As a result, city staff members ended up leading the prayer during some sessions.

After Cook eliminated the prayer, Rabbi Steven Einstein, president of the city’s Interfaith Council, offered to have his group handle the scheduling and provide guidance to those who would say the prayers. But, he said, Cook turned him down.

“She wasn’t comfortable with that because the city should not be in the position of telling people how to pray,” he said.

Cook, 51, is an attorney known as an outspoken advocate of environmental protections and slow growth.

She said she’s aware that her decision has caused controversy but believes she was left with no choice.

She points to the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibit the free exercise thereof.”

“I swore to uphold the Constitution,” she said. “And that’s what I’m doing.”

But that argument doesn’t sway Borden, who said she will keep reciting her own prayer until the rules are changed.

“This is my personal belief that a prayer needs to be said for the city of Huntington Beach,” she said. “I believe we should ask for divine guidance in the governing of our city.”