A federal judge will hear oral arguments today in a long-running legal dispute about what kind of prayers are allowed before meetings of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.
Magistrate Judge P. Trevor Sharp will preside over the hearing at 10:30 a.m. in Courtroom 1A of the U.S. District Court in Greensboro.
Several residents filed a federal lawsuit against the county in March 2007 alleging that the county is promoting Christianity because its prayer policy does not restrict mentioning Jesus Christ or "any other sectarian deity."
What each side is asking Sharp to do is to issue a summary judgment --to make a ruling without going to trial.
Although the case involves a local prayer issue, each side is being represented by national players in church-state disputes. The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, and the county is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund.
Bill Leonard, the dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, said he wouldn't second-guess what the court may decide, but he said he believes that the courts will "open the door to multiple voices."
"I suspect the court will say (prayer is OK) as long as everybody gets a voice," Leonard said, adding that it would open the door for more non-Christian prayers -- prayers by American Indians, Hindus and Muslims, for instance.
Leonard, who is a Baptist, said he believes that he shouldn't pray at a government gathering.
The ADF is defending the county at no charge, although it won't pay legal expenses to the ACLU should the county lose. A local group, the N.C. Partnership for Religious Liberty, has pledged about $55,000 to the county's effort, if needed.
The Forsyth board has always been sharply divided on the prayer issue, and it agreed on just a 4-3 vote to have the ADF defend the county.
Dave Plyler, the board's chairman, doesn't think that the county can win the lawsuit but so far has sided with his fellow Republican majority in having the suit go forward. Last December, the board rejected an offer from the ACLU to settle the suit in exchange for $60,000 in legal fees and a promise to forbid prayers with sectarian references.
Plyler said that he would "listen to what the board has to say" when the judge makes a ruling and the county is faced with the prospect of appealing an unfavorable decision or defending itself in an appeal.
"If I am the swing vote, I want to have some knowledge of where the board wants to go," Plyler said. "The three Democrats are saying, ‘Let's drop it,' and the three Republicans are saying, ‘Over my dead body.' "
Stephen Corts, the pastor of Center Grove Baptist Church in Clemmons and the chairman of the pro-prayer citizens' group, said he is worried that the county might not want to carry his cause forward past the level of U.S. District Court.
Corts said he can't "write a blank check for thousands of people in Forsyth County," but said that his group would "do our utmost to raise funds to offset our costs."
wyoung@wsjournal.com
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