To the editor:

It is good to know that the issue of prayer at Island County commissioners meetings has been put to rest, at least for the time being. Unfortunately, with Kelly Emerson and Jill Johnson’s stated agendas, this probably won’t be the last that we hear of it. The fact is that there is no place for anyone’s particular religious superstitions to be interjected into the affairs of our government procedures. The Washington state constitution is very clear about this. The fact that we see it ignored all too often doesn’t change that.

For Kelly Emerson to have wasted our time and money by suggesting this prayer nonsense in the first place was outrageous enough but Jill Johnson’s reasons for changing her position on this issue, as quoted by The South Whidbey Record revealed a depth of insensitivity, arrogance and religious bigotry that was astounding.

Separation of church and state wasn’t her reason, the thought that “turned her stomach” was that maybe someone would want to have a prayer included that was from a religion other than her own. Her bigoted “my-way-or-the-highway” attitude was revealed by statements like; “She wasn’t willing to sit through a prayer to another god or a watered down god” and “for me sitting up there hearing someone pray to a god that’s not my god … is something I am unwilling to compromise on.”

As a resident and taxpayer, thus one of their many employers, may I suggest that Kelly Emerson and Jill Johnson keep their theological musings to their lunch breaks and personal time (Matthew 6:5-7), stop goofing off on the job with this inappropriate religious diversion and get back to work doing their job of serving the public.

R. D. Bond

Langley