At the city commission meeting held April 3, 2006, the mayor, Dennis Mulder, and commissioners voted to reinstate the "Silent Invocation" as part of the agenda for future city commission meetings. The meeting was attended by many community residents who supported the move and who were upset when Mayor Mulder removed the word “invocation” earlier this year from the regular agenda.

One of the first changes the new mayor of Deltona made, following his recent election to office, was to change the "Silent Invocation" at the beginning of the city commission meetings to a "Moment of Silence," upon the advice of the city attorney, Roland Blossom. Both said they were concerned over "church and state" issues. Mr. Blossom warned that the city could be sued because "Silent Invocation" allegedly promotes religion.

The "Silent Invocation" had been on the agenda and part of the city commission’s meetings since Deltona was incorporated in 1995, along with the Pledge of Allegiance. The first city commissioners and first mayor, John Masiarczyk, initiated the "Silent Invocation" (where no verbal prayer is given), and it had been a tradition for the past ten years.

Mayor Mulder and Mr. Blossom caused even more controversy when they censored the paintings of Lloyd Marcus from a Black History Month display due to their religious content. Liberty Counsel filed suit against the city, and immediately the commissioners convened an emergency session where they voted to override the decision of Mulder and Blossom. Shortly thereafter, emails obtained by a public records request revealed that Mulder had been in communication with the ACLU, of which he is an active member. In one email, Mulder wrote: "The importance of the ACLU is immeasurable to me, my life, and my political philosophy."

Mathew D. Staver, Present and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, commented on the commissioners’ recent vote: "Throughout the history of America, courts, legislatures and local government bodies have opened their sessions with prayer. It was the prayer of Benjamin Franklin in 1787 that, during the Constitutional Convention, healed the splintered factions which then gave birth to the Constitution. The first official act of Congress was the appointment of a clergy to open each session with prayer. Prayer and politics have always been close friends."

Benjamin Franklin ended his prayer on June 28, 1787, with the following words: "I therefore beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service."