A prayer, by definition, isn’t a speech made to a public audience but is instead a petition made to a higher Being. For the government to censor such prayers is to turn the government into a theological referee, and would, in fact, establish a state religion: a state religion of generic American civil religious mush that assumes all religions are ultimately the same anyway. To remove the “sectarian” nature of prayer is to reduce such prayers to the level of public service announcements followed by “Amen.”

President Obama and religious conservatives are rarely on the same side of the culture wars. But a case now headed to the Supreme Court has forced a sliver of consensus between the White House and right-leaning people of faith on — of all things — praying in public, in Jesus’ name. Perhaps this little truce in the red state/blue state divide can give Americans of all faiths, and no faith, an opportunity to think about why our pluralistic society is better off with uncensored, unscripted public prayers.

The case is Town of Greece v. Galloway, a lawsuit by two citizens against city council meetings in a small New York town opening with a spoken prayer by an invited clergyperson. The plaintiffs argue that the prayers — especially since some of them were explicitly Christian — represent an establishment of religion by the government, an establishment forbidden by the First Amendment. The case, now headed to the Supreme Court, represents the first high court test of the constitutionality of such prayers in nearly a generation.

As the legal briefs were filed with the Supreme Court, they initially took the typical trajectory of such disputes. Religious conservative groups — such as my denomination — defended the legislative prayers, while so-called “strict separationist” groups called for an end to “sectarian” prayers that would alienate citizens such as the plaintiffs, one Jewish and one atheist.

The Obama Administration surprised some by siding with the defendants in the case, and defending voluntary prayers by invited clergy at public gatherings. The White House’s decision ameliorated the potential for a “red state/blue state” shouting match over this case, and made it more difficult for some to suggest that Town of Greece is some advance toward an intolerant “Christian America” zealotry.

But that caricature of a theocracy-seeking evangelicalism, hell-bent on establishing official up-to-code prayers everywhere “in Jesus’ name” — as easy as it is — doesn’t line up with reality, anyway.

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