Illinois Village Sets Guidelines For Invocations

The Carpentersville, Illinois Village Board last Tuesday adopted guidelines for invocations that it had previously voted to include at Board meetings. Yesterday's Arlington Heights (IL) Daily Herald reports that the invocations may be delivered by a recognized leader of any faith or belief. However all invocations must be non-sectarian and "cannot proselytize or advance any one religion or disparage any other religious belief." In requiring non-sectarian language, the policy states that: "specific references to Jesus Christ, Yahweh, Buddha or Allah would respectively be considered references to a specific tenant [sic.] of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism or Islam."