Separation of Church and State
In the Fall of 1986, I was starting my third year as an Assistant Professor of Zoology at what was then Weber State College. Though I enjoyed my academic activities, I had also become interested in learning about how the institution was run.
When a half-time internship in the Office of Academic Affairs was announced, I applied for it and was selected. This experience included learning about faculty salary issues, the legislative funding process, and other administrative topics.
Yet the most memorable aspect of this year-long internship occurred before any of my work for which I was appointed began.
Each fall at Weber State, at the start of the academic year, a ‘back-to-school’ meeting is held. There, the president and vice presidents address the faculty and staff about major issues in the coming year.
For me, the strangest item at this meeting was that it opened with a rather lengthy prayer, one that always ended with the words “…in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” I learned that these were typical prayers of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As a firm adherent of the separation of church and state, having a prayer in a state institution was anathema to me. Indeed, I had never heard one at any of the public universities or schools I attended. Since moving to Utah, I also heard such prayers at city council and PTA meetings. As a Jew, I felt totally alienated when I listened to these prayers, all the more so as it appeared that every other meeting attendee kept their head bowed and eyes closed at the time.
Shortly before the semester began, I was thus flustered when the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs asked me if I was willing to be a candidate to give the prayer at the upcoming back-to-school meeting. I requested clarification, saying, “So you’re asking me if I’d like to be one of the individuals who is being considered to give the prayer, right? You’re not actually asking me to do it yet?”
He said I was correct; he was just compiling a list of names for the Vice President for Student Services and that someone would get back to me.
Obviously, this request posed a challenge to my principles. I muttered something about needing to check my calendar, saying I’d respond to him soon. I was surely faced with a conundrum, especially given my opposition to prayer in public institutions. Still, I felt pressure to go along with this request. I was just starting the internship and didn’t want to get on the wrong side of the folks I’d be working with all year. I also thought I could alter the usual invocation, perhaps saying something about peace and love, or even wildlife conservation. And if a prayer was going to be given anyway, I figured that I might as well be the one to do it.
I fantasized about showing up dressed as an ultra-orthodox Jew, replete with a long beard. So, I told the Associate Vice President, “Yes, please add my name to the list of candidates.”
I did not hear back from him and was relieved not to have been selected. And upon attending the meeting, I was surprised and glad to see that nobody offered a prayer. I noticed that there was an empty chair among those where the administrators were seated on either side of the podium, but didn’t think much of it.
When the meeting ended, I headed back to the Zoology Department. I first went to the main office to check my mailbox. There, I ran into another faculty member who blurted out to me “You need to call the Vice President for Student Services right away! She’s been calling you.” I immediately went to my office and gave her a call.
She picked up the phone on the first ring, obviously knowing it was me from her caller I.D. Foregoing the usual nicety of saying “Hello”, she barked “Where were you!?” It seemed to be a combination of anger and anguish. I was taken aback, and asked what she meant, though I suspected it had something to do with the prayer. She told me that I was supposed to have given the prayer at the meeting, and that I had really let her down. I explained my understanding of the situation, adding that I regretted how it turned out. Not sure that she believed me, I was miffed and felt that my internship was off to a bad start.
Things have a way of working out though, as I learned the following day after arriving at the administration building for my internship duties. The Vice President walked over and said that everything was fine. After the back-to-school meeting, the President’s Council, which consists of the senior administrators, had met. When the issue of the prayer came up on the agenda, they realized that they didn’t miss it all that much and decided that it would not occur from then on.
There hasn’t been a prayer at our opening meetings ever since. I’ve always taken some small satisfaction in knowing that I was responsible for the cessation of this prayer, albeit inadvertently.
