Dave Plyler, the new chairman of the Forsyth County commissioners, has inherited a fight he doesn't want. And it could be a costly one for the county.
His predecessor, Gloria Whisenhunt, led the board in fighting to continue a long tradition -- starting meetings with sectarian prayer, or prayers, to specific deities. Here and across much of the rest of the Bible Belt, that usually means prayers to Jesus. We're free to pray to him or anyone or anything else just about anywhere we want to, as we should be. But vocal sectarian prayer at government meetings has been construed as government establishing a religious practice, which goes against the First Amendment to the Constitution.
"My gut reaction is if I had to redo the whole thing, I would suspend any activity that runs afoul of the law," Plyler told me last week. "I understand the passion of it and I understand the morality of it, but it's the law."
County Attorney Davida Martin has said that sectarian prayer to start the meetings is against the law, Plyler said.
Plyler is a semi-retired executive with Truth Broadcasting, a local Christian radio conglomerate. Stu Epperson Jr., the owner of Truth Broadcasting, has contributed money toward backing the county in its fight. Plyler said that connection wouldn't stop him from following the law.
He says he'll follow "the will of the board." But Plyler is not pushing to end sectarian prayer at meetings, even though he probably could swing the votes to do so.
He is, of course, a politician. There are good people on both sides of this issue who respect the First Amendment but disagree over how to balance its words guaranteeing the free expression of religion with those barring the government's establishment of religion.
Plyler has a lot of other problems to tackle, most of which are tied at some level to scrambling for money in a recession. The prayer fight is tied to money, too, in terms of the time it is taking the county to respond to a lawsuit and the potential bad publicity from the issue. Plyler should realize that.
He won election to the board last month after being voted off two years ago, just as the fight over sectarian prayer was heating up. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, on behalf of local residents Janet Joyner and Constance Lynn Blackmon, is suing the county to end sectarian prayers. The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal organization, is defending the county. Davida Martin, apparently realizing that the law is on the ACLU's side, chose not to handle the case.
Other local governments in the state have eliminated sectarian prayer at their meetings. They've opted for nonsectarian prayer or silent prayer.
Whisenhunt and fellow Republican commissioners Richard Linville and Debra Conrad won't back off the fight for sectarian prayer. But Plyler, also a Republican, and Democrats Beaufort Bailey, Ted Kaplan and Walter Marshall have enough votes between them to end the prayer fight. "If Dave would go along with (ending) it, I'm ready," Bailey said.
Plyler and the Democrats have questions about how much time it's taking county workers to respond to questions from lawyers on both sides of the lawsuit. County Manager Dudley Watts said it's taken no more than $5,000 worth of county employees' time -- which he said is not that expensive in terms of lawsuits "simply because the facts aren't in dispute."
Mike Johnson, the Alliance Defense Fund lawyer defending the county, told the Journal's Wes Young that he will contact county officials about the employee costs.
Beyond those costs, bad publicity from this suit could keep the county from landing new jobs. Like it or not, many big companies prefer areas that value diversity. Diversity means welcoming people of all faiths -- and not having one religion dominate others in the public square.
Though the Alliance Defense Fund is representing the county for free, it will not pay for any expenses that could be awarded if the county loses. Whisenhunt said private citizens have raised money to cover any extra expenses. Epperson is one of those people. He noted that the ACLU started the fight. And in this fight, the ACLU has the law on its side.
■ John Railey writes local editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at 727-7357 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com.
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