Atheist to deliver Greece's invocation

In this March 18 file photo, Pastor Mike Metzger, right, of First Bible Baptist Church, leads a moment of prayer at the start of the Greece Town Board meeting. Atheist Dan Courtney will open the July 15 Greece Town Board meeting. (Photo: Carolyn Thompson/ AP)

AP 7:41 a.m. EDT June 20, 2014

An atheist is set to deliver the opening "prayer" before the Greece Town Board where the U.S. Supreme Court's recent prayer case was centered.

The Center for Inquiry says Rochester atheist Dan Courtney will open the July 15 Greece Town Board meeting.

Two town residents — one Jewish, the other atheist — recently lost their challenge of the town's pre-meeting prayer practice. The pair argued that the mostly Christian prayers said at the start of each meeting made them uncomfortable.

But in May, the Supreme Court narrowly upheld the practice, declaring the prayers in line with long national traditions.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/06/20/atheist-deliver-new-york-towns-invocation/11035443/