The correct answer is “bicycle.”

The Southport council walked out when the mayor declined to pray at their meeting.

Four weeks ago, all five Southport City Council members walked out of their monthly meeting in protest of first-year Mayor Rob Thoman’s continuing refusal to present a prayer as has been done for nearly two decades at the start of the public sessions.

“Prayer belongs in your heart, in your mind and in your church,” said Thoman, a dentist who unseated a four-term incumbent in last year’s Republican primary. “Politics does not belong in your church. I don’t come to your church and preach my politics.”

Thoman and council members met and hashed out their differences, the mayor said. He and the all-Republican council will ask the audience at tonight’s City Council meeting to observe a moment of silence in lieu of a prayer.
. . .
“When they say ‘moment of silence,’ they’re trying to take prayer out of it,” said 35-year resident Charles Lynch, 70, who voted for Thoman.

Lynch said he would walk out of the meeting if a prayer were not recited.

As I’ve said before, I can’t believe these sorts of prayer have anything to do with bringing people closer to God or receiving divine guidance. To me, this has every appearance of marking territory.

Prayer at the meeting doesn’t do a thing to make the meeting function better. I doubt it brings people any closer to God than they would be if they prayed before or after the meeting. Certainly it runs afoul of Jesus’ admonition against ostentatious prayer, chastising those who love to be seen praying.