In Tampa, Florida, an atheist was allowed to deliver an invocation before the meeting started - but three members (half the council) was so incensed that an atheist could be given the same consideration as a Christian that they walked out rather than stay and listen to what he had to say. Yes, religious tolerance and liberty are alive and well in Tampa.

According to TBO:

As [Michael] Harvey, a member of Atheists of Florida, prepared to speak, Councilman Kevin White called for a vote to find a different person to pray or to skip the invocation that traditionally begins council meetings. White, who cast the only vote for his proposal, said he objected to a ``hallowed moment'' being turned over to someone to make a ``political statement.'' ... After White failed to get the unanimous vote he needed to stop the invocation, council members Mary Alvarez and Rose Ferlita joined him in leaving the meeting room before Harvey began his brief remarks.

Alvarez and Ferlita said the invocation shouldn't be used as a forum to criticize religion. ``I [don't] have to sit here and listen to an atheist tell me what I should and shouldn't believe,'' Alvarez said.

Maybe now Alvarez, Ferlita, and White know what others feel like when they abuse their power and have the government praise religion. After all, if the government has the power to praise religion, it has the power to criticize it — you can’t have it just one way but not the other. If that forum is an inappropriate place for criticism, it’s also an inappropriate place for endorsement.

The St. Petersburg Times reports:

"I just can't sit here and listen to someone that does not believe in a supreme being," [Alvarez] said. Ferlita voted to allow the invocation go on, but also walked out. "I think this is sending us in the wrong direction," Ferlita said. Mayor Pam Iorio, who did not attend the council meeting, said later that the invocation should be reserved for speakers who invoke God. She would not say whether she would have walked out. "I certainly don't agree with having an atheist come for the invocation," she said. "I think the invocation is a time for the council to start their day with an expression of faith."

So, politicians in Tampa believe that when they were elected, they were given the authority to decide what sorts of faith and what sorts of religious beliefs should be endorsed at city council meetings? Are they councilors or priests?

Later that day, Harvey said he expected controversy, but not the hostility he faced. "They did not want an atheist to share in that symbolic gesture to participate in government at that level," Harvey said. "I think it disturbed them. I think they did not know how to act." Harvey said he was particularly disappointed that White, Alvarez and Ferlita walked out, calling their actions "a discriminatory gesture." White is black, and Alvarez and Ferlita are both Hispanic women. "I think it is terribly ironic that the (wrong) message was sent by three members of a minority group to another minority," Harvey said. "Knowing how far minorities have come, you would think this would be fresh in their minds."

Later, White agreed that he was taking a stand. Listening to an atheist even one time could unleash a "snowball effect" on government. He compared it to having unprotected sex.

Yes, a snowball effect — the next thing you know, pagans will want to deliver invocations and atheists might actually want to be elected to public office. The horrors! Hide your women and children!

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Church and State News
• Atheism 101
• Myths About Atheism
• Atheism in Society
• Religious Intolerance & Bigotry