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In response to
"All I know, believe, is this, if our founding fathers didn't want religion to mix with politics in any way they would have started each session with a"
by
Stephen
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I haven't seen anyone here argue that they wanted a secular country. They did not want state sanctioned religion, they were not at all opposed to
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a citizen using his religion to inform his political views.
They were very much against the state establishing a particular religion as preferred.
The SCOTUs decisions on religion generally back this up. "In God We Trust" is generally accepted as religiously neutral. If it was "In Jesus We Trust" then it would be struck down as particular to one religion. This is why many displays of the Ten Commandments are considered unconstitutional, while some aren't. In a courthouse it violates the Constitution, in a public park with other symbols of various religions it generally isn't unconstitutional.
A nondenominational prayer is generally acceptable to open Congress or any other session of a government body. A prayer calling on the body to "praise Jesus" or "praise Mohammed" would probably be stricken down.
Part of it is common sense, too. The government is supposed to represent anyone, so it's usually a good idea NOT to engage in religious activities that would tend to alienate some portion of the population.
There's entirely too much bellyaching from religious groups when government groups choose NOT to engage in religious pageantry.
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