Jimmy Singh stepped to the podium before the Merced County Board of Supervisors earlier this month, delivering a solemn prayer some in the audience may have never heard in a local government building.
The invocation was Sikh – a faith that’s more than 500 years old, with roots in India and Pakistan, practiced today by thousands of worshippers throughout the Valley, including Merced County.
Dressed in his work clothes, Singh admitted his appearance was due to short notice. Still, he prayed in Punjabi and translated to English for those in attendance.
“By washing, one cannot become pure, even if one washed thousands of times,” he prayed. “… The hunger of the greed is not satisfied, even if one … loads all those words of good.”
It was the first time in at least five years, according to a Merced FOCUS analysis, that someone of the Sikh faith delivered an invocation before the Board of Supervisors meeting. In the five years of meetings reviewed by The FOCUS, invocations were largely based in the Christian faith, with only two other invocations, outside of Singh’s, representing other faiths.
Across the Central Valley, and especially in Merced County, prayer is just as routine as government business at civic meetings. The county’s Board of Supervisors and the cities of Merced, Atwater, and Los Banos all typically begin public, government meetings with an invocation, or a prayer.
Officials describe the practice for invocations as open and inclusive. Far more often than not, the invocations have an explicitly Christian tone.
Across Merced County jurisdictions that do invocations at meetings, publicly available agendas and meeting records show the speakers are almost entirely Christian, with the degree of Christian prevalence varying by jurisdiction. Representation from other faiths was minimal to non-existent.
Despite the dominance of the Christian faith and its representation in invocations, Merced is home to members of a diverse array of faiths, including Sikh, Islam, Judaism and more.
How the invocation selection process works
The diversity of religious representation during invocations varied by governmental jurisdiction across Merced County, according to the review by The FOCUS.
Merced County had an explicitly Christian invocation 84.6% of the time over five years, while the city of Merced had a Christian invocation 68% of the time in one year.
Los Banos had the highest rate of Christian invocations over a one year span. In 2025, 91% of invocations at Los Banos City Council meetings were explicitly Christian, while 9% were chaplains, who are trained to administer pastoral care to people of all faiths in secular institutions such as the military or police department.
Atwater had the lowest rate of clearly identifiable Christian invocations, with 46.7% being Christian. Atwater’s invocations included a mix of chaplains, government employees and local school students. About 13.3% of Atwater’s invocations’ religious affiliation could not be immediately identified.
Despite having one of the largest Punjabi Sikh populations in the U.S., the Sikh faith was not represented at invocations anywhere in Merced County from 2021 to 2025, according to publicly available agenda documents.
The Merced FOCUS spoke with Merced elected officials at the city and county levels to better understand how invocation speakers are selected and what civic leaders think of the practice.
The governing bodies have differing practices ranging in formality for invocation speaker selection.
At the county level, the system is personal and straightforward. Each month, one of the five county supervisors invites an individual or group to deliver that month’s meetings’ invocations.
The system was created in 2017 when Supervisor Daron McDaniel pushed for the inclusion of invocations at the start of the public meetings.
“Some of us pray in my office before each meeting, and I thought I’d bring it to the dais,” McDaniel said in a 2017 Merced Sun-Star article.
According to Merced County board meeting agenda documents, there were 65 identifiable invocation speakers during the years 2021-25. Out of those 65, only two could be determined to be from a non-Christian faith.
When it comes to the city of Merced’s selection process, the city clerk and city manager handle the city’s invocation speaker selection.
“I think we have folks who volunteer,” Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto said. “We have a list, and there’s several people on that list who sign up. It’s just kind of a rotating list of people who are willing to do it, to be honest.”
While the city manager and city clerk maintain a roster for their process, city council members still can make recommendations.
Councilmember Shane Smith said he has asked for a broader range of faith representation, including Jewish and Muslim speakers.
“If we are going to do an invocation, we should have a diversity of views that reflect our community as a whole,” Smith said. “If we took some kind of a poll, the majority of religion here would be Protestant Christian… But it is not true that it’s the only religion that’s practiced by our residents.”
“If we are going to do an invocation, we should have a diversity of views that reflect our community as a whole.”
Merced City Councilmember Shane Smith
In 2025 alone, the city of Merced had the same number of non-Christian prayer leaders as Merced County had over five years. The city included two Muslim invocations on Aug. 4 and April 21.
One of the Muslim invocations at the city was given by Imam Shahid Sohail. He told The Merced FOCUS he has given invocations at the city for roughly 10 years, but he has never been invited to give an invocation at a county meeting.
Sohail, however, said he doesn’t “feel bad about it.”
“Maybe it’s our fault we never reached them, but I would like to reach them,” he said.
Some elected officials acknowledge that even with the diversity of faiths in Merced County, their own social networks do play a role in the selection process.
“In my circle, I don’t have a circle of clergy,” County Supervisor Josh Pedrozo said. “If I know somebody who I can ask, then I will… I know that as a Catholic person, I can call a priest.”
Supervisor Jim Pacheco described himself as Catholic, as did Pedrozo and Supervisor Scott Silveira. Supervisors McDaniel and Lloyd Pareira Jr. described themselves as raised Catholic, but now McDaniel attends a “Bible-based” church in Atwater, and Pareira attends a “non-denominational” Christian church.
Two influential members of the Merced County Sikh community, Thakar Kirpal Singh Grewal and Tripat Grewal, expressed disappointment at the lack of Sikh representation. Tripat confirmed with the secretary of the Gurdwara Sahib Merced that no invitation to deliver an invocation has been extended to their community.
The frustration is especially felt when county supervisors show up to the gurudwara during election season asking for support, they said.
“Yeah it feels … like they were there when they needed the money, but how come they didn’t keep us in mind?” Tripat said. “They should invite some representative, even if the priest or the preacher cannot come.”
For Sikh community members like Tripat and Thakar, such exposure can go a long way toward combatting prejudices and negative preconceptions of the Sikh community in Merced County, they said.
After being interviewed by The FOCUS about the invocation selection process, Pedrozo invited someone from the Sikh faith, Jimmy Singh, to give the invocation at the April 7 board meeting.
Pedrozo said his interview with The FOCUS for this story didn’t influence his decision to invite someone from a non-Christian faith. Pedrozo also said he doesn’t show up for the Punjabi Sikh community only during election season, adding it’s his job as a representative to go where the people are.
A dominant religious culture
Religion is deeply rooted in the Central Valley, which is often called California’s “Bible Belt.”
According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, about 45.1% of Merced County’s 2020 population were counted as adherents to a religious body in the organization’s dataset.
The same dataset showed the county’s organized religious landscape was overwhelmingly Christian, with Catholicism as the largest faith tradition.
The data on religion aligns with what Merced County officials say they see in their own communities. At the county level, some argued their invocation lineup reflects the county’s broader faith culture.
“I think it represents our constituency, quite frankly,” McDaniel said. “That’s pretty much our constituency here in Merced County. But I don’t want to leave anybody out either.”
Merced County isn’t the only place in the Valley where one will find religion referenced in a government setting.
Just earlier this year, the Clovis City Council voted to display the words “In God We Trust” in the council chamber, following in the footsteps of the Fresno City Council and Fresno Board of Supervisors, The Fresno Bee reported. Those visiting a Los Banos City Council meeting might see Mayor Pro Tem Deborah Lewis deliver an invocation from the dais.
Pastor Steve Hammond of Bethel Community Church in Los Banos, who has given invocations at the Merced County Board of Supervisors meetings over five times since invocations were introduced at their meetings, contrasts Merced County with the Bay Area, which is just two hours away.
“We live in a very conservative part of California, and we live in an area where faith is very important still, even though we’re an hour and a half away from one of the most unchurched areas in the United States,” Hammond said.
Invocations serve “a greater good,” proponents say
During interviews with elected officials, the invocation practice was almost universally defended. Some officials and people who gave invocations described the practice as a way to calm the room and encourage civility.
“It just sets the tone for the meeting,” McDaniel said.
Pareira described the effects of invocations similarly, saying they help the room focus on “decorum,” “community” and the “greater good.”
He gave an example of one public meeting where a group arrived visibly upset, but became calmer after the invocation and before public comment began.
“You can hear them outside, you can hear them upset and yelling and screaming,” he said. “Then after the invocation, we do public comment, and those people came up and did public comment, but did it a lot more calm than they were acting five minutes before.”
Supervisor Pacheco echoed the sentiments of his fellow supervisors by noting invocations help set a respectful tone before public issues are handled. Pedrozo framed the practice as a moment of clarity before the work begins.
“It’s almost like a deep breath,” he said.
The Merced FOCUS spoke with two people who have given invocations, Debbie Croft of Alpha Pregnancy Center and Hammond. Croft delivered an invocation at a Merced City Council meeting, while Hammond delivered his at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting.
Hammond echoed the sentiment of the county supervisors who focused on decorum and respectfulness.
“One thing I think our nation has lost in recent years is the ability to have a conversation without yelling and screaming and calling names,” he said. “And so I think offering a prayer at the very beginning will acknowledge God and bring him into the equation to where we can have a conversation, respect one another and work toward a mutual goal of benefiting everyone.”
Croft defended invocations as an American tradition. She also cited the Biblical God’s authority over government.
“We don’t know how a decision we make today will impact our lives, or our neighbors’ lives, a month from now, or a year from now,” she said. “So looking to God for wisdom and guidance in their meetings in today’s culture, I believe that’s still necessary because God ordained government.
“(God) established government and authority and rules,” Croft said.
Some say prayers at government meetings are inappropriate, regardless of faith
Although Merced’s elected officials said they haven’t received complaints from the public about invocations, not everyone agrees with the practice.
Critics argue that public prayer before government meetings is not neutral, even when participation is technically voluntary.
One of those critics is Merced City Councilmember Fue Xiong. He opposes the practice of any invocations in government meetings. He also believes the current system favors certain churches and traditions over others.
“I’m a big stickler of separation of church and state,” Xiong said. “We don’t represent every faith-based organization here in Merced. I think the city definitely has favoritism in terms of which religion or which organization we want to be the ones performing the invocations.”
“We don’t represent every faith-based organization here in Merced. I think the city definitely has favoritism in terms of which religion or which organization we want to be the ones performing the invocations.”
Merced City Councilmemmber Fue Xiong
There are critics outside Merced County, too, such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based legal advocacy group. The organization maintains a strict Constitutional principle of separation of church and state, and it has participated in lawsuits nationwide to defend that principle.
Chris Line, legal counsel for the organization, said government meetings should not begin with prayer at all.
“Government exists to serve people of all faiths and none,” Line said. “An invocation is by definition a prayer. Prayer is a religious exercise. And if we’re going to bring religious exercise into a government meeting, that government neutrality is compromised. We’re basically mixing official state business with worship.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s legal counsel argues the common defense that invocations calm the room misses a key point: That may be true for people whose faith is being represented, but not for everyone else.
“I think they’re inherently exclusionary when you have prayers for one religion,” he said. “People feel excluded.”
It’s easy to overlook the exclusionary aspects of invocations when one’s own faith is part of the dominant religious culture of an area, Line argues.
He flagged the practice of an elected official leading an invocation at a government meeting as unconstitutional in his view, which Mayor Pro Tem Lewis of Los Banos has done on multiple occasions.
The Merced FOCUS made contact with Lewis to request an interview. Lewis stopped responding to the FOCUS’s request for an interview after the reporter declined to provide questions in advance of the interview. The reporter also declined to provide questions in advance of interviews with county officials.
The Merced FOCUS asked Hammond and Croft how they would feel if they were present at a meeting where a non-Christian faith was represented.
“If I was in a meeting, and someone who didn’t have the same faith gave the invocation, as long as it wasn’t blasphemous, I would respect that,” Croft said. She later noted that if a prayer were “contrary and offensive to God,” she would be “very uncomfortable with that.”
“I would have to consider how to respond. I wouldn’t become hostile because I do believe in freedom of speech,” she said.
When he is invited to give an invocation, Hammond said he will do it based exclusively on his own faith beliefs.
“I am a Christian. I’m a Christ follower, and I don’t compromise that for anyone,” he said. “And so when I pray, it is a Christian prayer, it’s a Biblical prayer, and it will be closed in the name of Jesus.”