The following is excerpted from The Christian Post, Sept. 26, 2014: “North Alabama Freethought Association board member Kelly McCauley will open the Huntsville City Council meeting Thursday in a non-religious invocation after a secularist group threatened to sue the council over its tradition of Christian Prayer. McCauley, who according to his Meetup page was confirmed in the Lutheran Church and ‘dropped out’ at age 23, told AL.com, ‘My goal is to offer a non-sectarian invocation that, I hope, will lend gravity to the meeting and point to our civic values.’ McCauley was invited by Huntsville leaders to give the body’s first atheist ‘prayer’ after secularist group Freedom From Religion Foundation complained about its Christian opening prayers. Huntsville’s City Council acknowledged that over 90 percent of its prayers before 2012 were Christian in nature. ... Huntsville elected to keep its opening prayers since receiving FFRF's complaints, but opened the tradition up to include various faith leaders including Wiccan priest Blake Kirk who prayed before the council meeting earlier this year. Kirk’s prayer set off a community uproar, prompting the city to cancel a planned second Wiccan prayer. The city has also featured prayers from Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim leaders.”