Lawmakers regularly pray in ways that prompted suit against county
The Rowan County Board of Commissioners violated constitutional requirements to separate church and state, the ACLU says in a lawsuit. Lawmakers regularly use Christian prayers to open session.
Posted — UpdatedThe complaint, filed in U.S. District Court, accuses the board of violating the First Amendment provision ordaining the separation of church and state by routinely praying to Jesus Christ to start their meetings, The Associated Press reports.
Forsyth County lost a similar case last year when the ACLU challenged that board's use of sectarian prayers to open meetings.
That's a warning lawmakers have roundly ignored.
"We just come before you with thanksgiving and praise for who you are and all that you have done at the cross to allow us to walk boldly up to your throne of grace," Rep. Susan Martin, R-Wilson, prayed before the House session Wednesday, offering one of the few recent prayers that didn't mention Jesus by name.
On Tuesday, Rep. Jacqueline Michelle Schaffer, R-Mecklenburg, offered what has become standard fare over the last three years.
"We thank you so much for all that you've given us, for this opportunity and also for your gift of salvation through your son, Jesus Christ. It is in his name that we pray," Schaffer prayed on Tuesday.
Senate Chaplin Peter Milner regularly opens that chamber's sessions with explicitly Christian prayers.
The Fourth Circuit has not banned all prayers before government proceedings. The court wrote in the Forsyth County case:
But it added that prayers favoring one religion over another were unconstitutional. To that point, the court wrote:
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