A pastor’s six-minute invocation before the June 6 Mobile City Council meeting included indirect criticism of the LGBTQ community ahead of a public hearing in which speakers blasted an LGBTQ Pride-themed event.

The prayer is now drawing criticism from secular groups and is raising questions about whether the council should even have a pre-meeting prayer.

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Pastor Travis Johnson of Pathway Church delivered the invocation and asked for prayer in protecting children from “ideologies that have zeroed in on them.” His remarks drew applause from people attending, many of whom were at the council meeting to oppose an LGBTQ Pride-theme Art Walk and drag queen show on June 9 in downtown Mobile.

The pre-meeting prayer also occurred during a month in which Johnson is highlighting on social media a month-long series of sermons at his church entitled, “Awake, Not Woke.” The most recent of those sermons, occurring last Sunday, was critical of the LGBTQ lifestyle.

Johnson also used his most recent sermon to criticize Visit Mobile and accused them of using taxpayer funds to promote Pride Month celebrations.

‘Bad idea’

But it’s his pre-meeting prayer before the council meeting at Government Plaza that is drawing the biggest rebuke this week. Organizations such as Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), are calling Johnson’s invocation “divisive” and questioning whether the council should even open their meetings with a prayer.

The questions about the prayer are also likely to come up during an “Alabama Queer Town Hall” hosted by the City of Mobile’s two LGBTQ liaisons at 5 p.m. town hall Thursday at the Innovation Portal in downtown Mobile.

“Mobile residents should be able to have confidence that they will be welcomed and treated equally when attending City Council meetings,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. ” But that was not the case at the June 6 Mobile City Council meeting, which began with a 6-minute-long, explicitly Christian prayer that included anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.”

She added, “This is the risk the City Council runs by unwisely choosing to incorporate official prayer as part of its meetings. Invocations, which are almost always delivered by Christian faith leaders, are divisive for residents of different faiths or who are nonreligious. By having an invocation, the Council risks clergy like Pastor Johnson using the platform to advance a personal political ideology. There’s an easy way to avoid this: Stop including invocations in official meetings.”

Ashley Flores, spokeswoman for the Mobile City Council in response to Laser’s remarks, said “she’s entitled to her opinion.”

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF, echoed Laser’s comments.

“In this instance, it shows how divisive the prayer practice can become, when pastors or other invokers take advantage of the podium to promote political agendas in the name of religion,” she said. “This kind of prejudicial, inflammatory situation shows precisely why governmental prayer is a bad idea.”

Council reacts

The Mobile City Council was confronted about the prayer during Tuesday’s meeting, when Mobile resident Elizabeth Luther questioned them about their policy and time limits for the invocation. The council allows the public to speak during the public comment session of its weekly meetings for three minutes but does not have a time limit on pastors during the invocation.

“I was watching it and thinking that when it was at three minutes, it would stop,” said Luther. “It didn’t. It went on and on. I was disturbed by that. It didn’t seem very positive or uplifting. No one should have a target on their backs just because they are different.”

She added, “It turned into a sermon and when (Johnson) was finished, he got an applause.”

Mobile City Council President C.J. Small told Luther that it was the first time in his tenure on the council that he experienced that, adding “we have never came across this before.” Small joined the council in 2012.

“Clearly, there was an objective behind it,” Small said. “It’s something we’ll look at in the future.”

Mobile City Clerk Lisa Lambert said that her office, before each council meeting, speaks with the ministers and ask them to provide a brief prayer. She said there is no time limit imposed.

Flores, the council spokeswoman, said in an email to AL.com on Friday that upon extending the invitation to give the invocation, pastors are told to keep it between “three to five minutes.”

She said pastors who are chosen to deliver the invocation are referred from a council member or a council employee or from past interactions. There is no rotating roster of pastors who deliver invocations, she said.

Flores said it was unknown ahead of the June 6 meeting that Johnson’s invocation was aligned to a sensitive topic that was part of the public comment period later during the session at Government Plaza.

Flores said that Johnson was asked during the month of May to give the invocation. Johnson was advertising the “Awake, Not Woke” sermon series on Facebook late last month.

Bryan Fuenmayor, an LGBTQ activist who spoke during Tuesday’s council meeting, said that allowing Johnson and other pastors to speak is concerning and the process should be addressed.

“It makes sense to not have pastors who target marginalized communities in their prayers,” Fuenmayor said. “It’s something I’ll discuss (with the City of Mobile’s LGBTQ) liaisons at the town hall next week.”

Promotion

Johnson’s sermon at Pathway Church last weekend also drew questions on whether Visit Mobile should utilize its social media platforms to promote LGBTQ-themed events.

Johnson, during his sermon, pointed to an AL.com article last week that quoted Clark saying Mobile – as a travel destination – aims to “promote a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment.”

“I would like to give the benefit of the doubt to Visit Mobile that this is an oversight or a misunderstanding with our taxpayers’ money,” Johnson said. “You wonder what would happen if Pathway Church applied to the city and county saying we want our budgets to be funded exclusively by the city and county taxpayers. You think anyone would be upset with that? I think we should pay our own bills, not our hard-earned tax dollars.”

Clark, who stands by his comments following the council’s June 6 meeting, declined further comment saying he had not seen Johnson’s sermon.

But promoting inclusive travel by destination organizations and convention and visitor bureaus like Visit Mobile is nothing new. Similar organizations in Huntsville, Birmingham, and Montgomery are promoting LGBTQ events on their websites this month.

Destinations International, the global association for destination associations with over 800 members including Visit Mobile, is highlighting “equity, diversity and inclusion” leadership as one of its 2023 strategic goals.

Johnson questioned, during his sermon, whether promoting inclusivity should be Visit Mobile’s role.

“This is the Bible Belt, right?” Johnson said during his sermon. “Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, this is a very family-friendly community. But this is what we are going to promote?”