If you live outside the Central Valley of California you are probably wondering where you have heard of Lodi before. My bet is that you are thinking of the song, “Stuck in Lodi” by Credence Clearwater Revival where the singer laments his misfortune in getting stuck in the self proclaimed “Zinfandel capital of the World”.

Lodi has tiptoed back into the spotlight, for all the wrong reasons. The city council has been sued for their public, Christian only prayers before council meetings. Yes, you read that right, even today some people don’t get that it’s uncool, constitutionally speaking, to have public prayer that is exclusively Christian.

Actually the council had a policy of non-sectarian prayer, but didn’t enforce it, so all the prayers were of the Jesus Squad variety. This was fine when Lodi was the sleepy little pit of the CCR song, but it’s not that dinky anymore. It’s grown; there are actually a few non-Christians among it’s citizens now, so it was inevitable that someone was going to say, “Hey, wait a minute…”

As you can imagine, as soon as the issue came up, all the right wing Christian nutjobs slithered out from underneath their rocks and immediately started in the “Bullies for Christ” routine they so adore.

One Bully for Christ, a former Navy Chaplain, Gordon James Klingenschmitt of the national Pray in Jesus' Name Project said he was going to advertise the final vote on billboards if the council "does not stand up to atheists." I think Gordon should return his WWJD bracelet, I don’t think he is quite getting “it”. I seriously want to ask him, “When you were in the Navy, did you really understand what defending freedom of religion actually meant?” Think about it, we are about to enter into the Christmas season, at a time when unprecedented numbers of people are out of work and going to have to rely on a helping hand to get through the season, a so-called Christian organization is going to spend money on a fucking BILLBOARD?

In the end, the City Council of Lodi wimped out and decided to allow prayer that doesn’t favor any one religion and to encourage participation from all religions and non-religious groups. I’m hoping some Atheist offers up a prayer to science, but then they would probably be lynched.

If you have some time and want to good laugh, be sure and check out the comments in the linked article, and see all the wonderful Christians in action. One of them told me to eat pooh, which cracks me right up. Not very Christian and very childish at the same time.

I do however want end by to giving a shout out to associate pastor Kevin Suess of Vinewood Community Church in Lodi, who had the guts to and tell the council sorry for all the un-Christian like behavior by the Bullies for Christ. Kevin, you rock. Gordon, take notes.