Editorial: Prayer has no place at government meetings

By: JournalNow Staff | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: November 02, 2011

The lawyers from a right-wing Christian organization that Forsyth commissioners chose for their wrongheaded and potentially costly fight for prayer at their meetings have filed to have the case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. On the chance that the highest court in the land does choose to hear this case, we'll have a good thought that the Constitution will prevail and the commissioners will finally have to give up this battle that would, in effect, give their government body the right to push Christianity on all.

The group fighting this battle for the county is the Alliance Defense Fund, whose causes include opposing gay marriage and abortion. Commissioners want the right to open their meetings with sectarian prayers, saying that clergy of all religions are welcome to do that. But the prayers have usually been to Jesus, giving the strong impression that the county is endorsing Christianity. That would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free expression thereof."

But don't take our word for it, or that of the many taxpayers who've voiced their opinions on this issue, including Janet Joyner and Constance Lynn Blackmon, the plaintiffs who filed the suit to stop the practice. Listen to the courts. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ruled against the county, which then appealed the decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. The appeals court, too, ruled against the county. It found that most of the prayers given under the board's first-come, first-served policy were Christian. Legislative prayer "should send a signal of welcome rather than expulsion," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a respected conservative, wrote in his ruling.

The Alliance Defense Fund is fighting the case for free, but if the county loses it could well be liable for paying the victor's costs. A local group has raised money for that, but there's no guarantee that it can meet all the costs. If it can't, taxpayers, many of whom don't support this fight, could be left holding the bag.

Katherine Parker, the attorney for the ACLU who has argued the case for the plaintiffs, told the Journal that the ADF is wrong on the merits. "As every other court that has reviewed this case has found, Forsyth County has taken a very public stance in favor of one particular religion — Christianity," Parker told the Journal's Wesley Young.

We sure don't want taxpayers to have to pay any costs for a loss. But on the off chance that the commissioners would prevail, there would be a far greater cost — the loss of our precious freedom from government-sponsored religion.