The thing for me is that an invocation is not a speech. It's not speech and so it is not directed at an audience. Even at a Presidential inauguration, an invocation is not directed toward the President. An invocation is a prayer.
The person giving an invocation is praying. Assuming the person who gives an invocation believes in deity of some sort of another -- s/he's going to be praying to that deity as he believes in him/her, so there's not sense (to me) in watering it down, or hiding it.
I think America's history and Constitution are more aimed at allowing people to speak their beliefs (whether they're theistic or not) in the public square, rather than pretend they don't hold those beliefs when in the public square.
And, again, let me apologize for writing the "j-word". I did not mean to offend, I simply wasn't thinking about how it would sound outside my head.
quester, speaking only for myself, I got the tone you were going for and took not one bit of offense.
ION
Teddy Kennedy's been taken out of the Luncheon on a stretcher.