Historical Reasons for the Tradition of Legislative Prayer

I have a column over at Commonweal discussing the historical practice of legislative prayer, which I claim is part of a broader set of American traditions involving providential benediction. The occasion for the column is the legislative prayer case now under consideration by the Supreme Court, Town of Greece v. Galloway.

It seems an iron law that the more I read my own writing, the more clumsy infelicities of phrasing I find. This piece contains this statement, for example: 

At one point in the oral argument, Justice Kagan rightly observed that “when we relate to our government, we all do so as Americans,” not as religious or non-religious individuals. That is true, and legislative prayer is part of that American heritage. It is a mechanism for citizens to acknowledge these limitations—personal and systemic—before they make law and set policy.

Is it true that when people relate to their government, they do not do so as religious believers or nonbelievers, but as "Americans"? If it were true, it might well mean that one could not be both an American and a religious believer or unbeliever. But more than that, the statement implies that there is some sort of Americanism from which our other deepest commitments can and should be peeled off when citizen and state interact.

It would have been better to say: "When we relate to our government as Americans, we do so graced and adorned with all of our commitments, not stripped naked of them. And legislative prayer is part of that American heritage."

But that would have been today's column. Tomorrow's would amend other unpleasing expressions.