DECATUR - Every Sunday, Michael Stewart takes his family out to eat after worship services at Tabernacle Baptist Church.

And wherever they may end up, the Stewart family never fails to bow their heads and say grace before the meal.

"You should always thank God for everything he does," Stewart said. He does admit, however, that he often gets weird looks after he has finished praying at restaurants.

"I don't try to hide praying in public, and do pray loud enough to where everyone at the table can hear it. I don't care if it bothers other folks, just as long as I'm not rudely loud with it," he said.

Other people like the Stewarts have no problem bowing their heads and saying grace in public.

"I like seeing other people praying, it kind of gives you a boost in your faith. And there is something special about sitting down to eat with others in the body of Christ," said Glen Nordholm, who likes to eat at Royal International Buffet with other members of Maranatha Assembly of God.

Server Bonnie Lucas said she finds it refreshing to see people she waits on during the breakfast and lunch rush actually praying before their meal at Coney McKane's.

"A lot of people bow their heads or even hold hands to pray. But that's when I have to be careful not to interrupt when bringing them condiments or refills until afterwards," she said. "I think those who come in and pray seem to be happier people."

Jennifer Blean says she feels that prayer is more of a private and intimate thing with God. Blean said she'll often pray when she is at a restaurant with a group rather than when by herself.

"My husband and I like to pray to ourselves when we go out and eat. I just feel it is good to be private with God. I feel it's not about being ashamed of Jesus, because you should never do that, it's more about the moment - how you want to show God that you care and want to thank him for what he has done in your life."

However, for many others, public prayer is uncomfortable.

The Rev. Danny Cox of Grace United Methodist Church laughs when he shares a past dining experience.

It was more than a year ago, when he was eating with a friend at a Decatur restaurant. When they bowed their heads to pray before the meal, the waitress immediately came over and asked them if something was wrong with their food, he said.

You can be helpful or harmful in prayer - a delicate line to respect, said the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of Faith in Action and the National Clergy Council based in Washington D.C.

"As a minister," he said during a phone interview, "I believe with any public prayer, whether saying grace before a meal at a restaurant or kneeling in front of an abortion clinic, you have to be careful. Jesus says we are not to be ostentatious in our prayers. Prayer is an act of humility and should be done in a humble way."

As a Christian activist for the past 25 years, Schenck has noticed a new trend of more younger people leading prayer in public.

"They see it as an effective thing to do in helping change society and public policy, which is the most humble and peaceful thing that they can do. The previous generation took our freedom of religious expression for granted and lost it and restrictions were put in place," Schenck said.

He talked about the number of injunctions issued by federal district courts in the mid-1990s that banned prayer events in public, but those decisions later reversed.

There is no place that is outside the scope of God's mercies, not even Burger King, said Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary based in Pasadena, Calif. He also is an online columnist for Beliefnet.com.

"I still believe that wherever we are - whether we acknowledge it or not - we are in the presence of God. There is no distinction between our "private" and "public" lives in God's eyes," he wrote in one of his columns on Beliefnet.com.

sheilas@herald-review.com|421-7963.