Praying for good governance?

Recently, a court ruled that a local council did not have the right to hold prayers in their meetings.

Whilst I agree with the ruling, I find it deeply sad that it came to law at all. Secularism is all about religious freedom; we shouldn't be in the business of 'banning' things.

You could argue that this is a trivial matter, and that secularists shouldn't make such a fuss, but if the prayers really are so trivial, they can surely be held outside the meeting without complaint. If, on the other hand, the prayers are significant, then it is essential they are not held as part of the meeting, as they symbolically exclude the majority of UK citizens from local governance. Either way, it should be simple. Hold prayers before the meeting, not during the meeting.

The problem comes because some people think, just because they are generally free to do a thing, they should be allowed to do it whenever and wherever they like, regardless of the implications for other people. This applies to many issues of freedom, not just this case. Commonly, this is known as bad manners. If people have good manners and are considerate of other people, you don't need to make rules to govern their behaviour.

We shouldn't have to prevent councils from holding prayers in their meetings, for the same reason we shouldn't have to prevent them from playing football. "Why shouldn't I play football in council meetings? We've always played football - it's a tradition going back hundreds of years. This is a football playing country. What do you mean it excludes people who don't want to play? How dare you challenge my right to play football whenever I want? You should respect and tolerate my football playing."

Obviously Christian councillors should hold their prayers, and their football matches, outside of the meetings. There should be nothing more to say on the matter, but if Christian councillors are going to be selfish and continue playing football during the meetings, we're going to have to make a rule saying they can't do that. It is just a shame we could not rely on common sense and good manners to get the same result.