Prayer appeal OK'd: Plyler agrees to go along with his party

After hearing emotional appeals both for and against, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners voted 4-3 last night to appeal a federal judge's ruling that county meetings cannot begin with prayers that include the name of Jesus or otherwise show affiliation with some particular faith.

Dave Plyler, the chairman and swing vote on an otherwise evenly split board, aligned himself with fellow Republicans Debra Conrad, Richard Linville and Gloria Whisenhunt to appeal the case to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Opposing the appeal were Democrats Beaufort Bailey, Ted Kaplan and Walter Marshall.

"I think we need to make it clear to the community that we have always made a practice of having an open door to all religions," Conrad said after the meeting. "I certainly hope we win the appeal."

Judge James A. Beaty ordered the county to stop allowing sectarian prayer in his Jan. 28 ruling on a suit brought against the county in 2007 by citizens objecting to Christian references in the prayers. Those citizens were backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

ACLU attorney Katherine Parker said last night that she was disappointed that Forsyth County had decided to "continue to fight to advance Christianity at their meetings," and promised that her group would "continue to fight … on behalf of all Forsyth County residents so that they can have a government that is neutral on religious matters."

In recent weeks Plyler's vote became the focus of efforts on both sides of the contentious issue, since the board was otherwise divided 3-3.

Plyler said after the meeting that he had come "this close" -- spreading his fingers about an inch apart -- to voting the other way and getting the county out of the suit.

"I don't think we need to be in this suit, but in politics you need to compromise and work together," Plyler said, citing the need to keep Conrad on his side and the Republicans together, at least for this vote.

Most of those speaking to the board during the public-comment section were in favor of an appeal.

"There are few times in your life when you get a chance to stand up and speak for something you believe in with every fiber of your being," said Guy Cayton, speaking in favor of allowing prayers to Jesus.

One speaker, Jack Fisher, called Marshall a racist for remarks he had made suggesting that prayer supporters were the same kind of people who had in the past supported segregation.

Last night, Marshall again denounced the pro-appeal effort as one dominated by white Southern Baptists who had backed slavery in former times and, he said, now practiced discrimination against women.

Marshall called for the creation of a commission including people of all faiths to promote "healing" -- one that Plyler endorsed. Commissioner Beaufort Bailey complained that he did not see any blacks among the large crowd that turned out to see the vote.

A speaker opposed to an appeal, Charles Wilson, said that he's a retired Southern Baptist minister who believes that Baptists should stand for separation of church and state.

"Every time a sectarian prayer is uttered in a government meeting, somebody else's freedom is being denied," he said.

What the county agreed to do last night was appeal the case, enter into an agreement with the Alliance Defense Fund for the appeal, and enter into another agreement with the N.C. Partnership for Religious Liberty to pay any attorney fees or damages against the county should the county ultimately lose the case.

The Alliance Defense Fund is paying the county's costs to litigate the case.

The Partnership for Religious Liberty, led by the Rev. Steve Corts, had in recent days committed $300,000 -- including $55,000 banked earlier -- toward paying the ACLU's legal expenses and damages should the county lose on appeal. That's an expense the ADF would not pay.

Plyler has been promising to vote for an appeal if the partnership would make a blanket commitment to pay any county legal costs.

Before yesterday's meeting, Corts had provided the county with a letter certifying that the partnership had slightly more than $300,000. After a lot of back and forth negotiations, Plyler decided to compromise with Corts and not demand a blanket guarantee.

But Plyler said that the agreement Corts signed also gives the county complete freedom to withdraw from the appeal, and that the partnership will not have any control over the litigation. Nor will the partnership have any say on whether the county would appeal beyond the Fourth Circuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Earlier during the day, Plyler said, the ACLU had offered to reduce its bill for legal expenses at the district court level to $55,000 if the county would agree not to appeal. Plyler thinks the ACLU will now demand the $127,000 it had earlier tallied.

Plyler said that his vote was not influenced by his part-time employment with Stu Epperson Jr., the owner of some religious radio stations and a supporter of the prayer appeal. Last night, Plyler said that Epperson had been calling him for more than a week but that he had purposely avoided contact with him.

wyoung@wsjournal.com


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