The Upstate is in the crosshairs of a Constitutional controversy over prayer at government meetings, with battle lines being drawn by elected officials on one side and the American Civil Liberties Union on the other.

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, a Westminster Republican, introduced a bill before Congress to protect the rights of elected and appointed officials to pray as they see fit in public meetings.

On Thursday night, about 150 people flocked to a prayer rally at Seneca High sponsored by the Oconee County Ministerial Association and the Beaverdam Baptist Association, which represents about 150 churches in Oconee County.

Cynthia Gonzalez of Walhalla came to pray that elected officials on the local councils and everywhere can pray in the name of Jesus if they wish.

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"You've got to have God and Jesus in your life," Gonzalez said.

A score of local clergy led prayers punctuated by amens, yeses and thank yous from the faithful.

Afterward, Matthew Hilley, an Anderson member of Conservative Citizens of South Carolina, called it "an awesome show of support for the name of Jesus being used before government meetings" by "Christians coming together for our rights."

But Michael Deanhart, an Anderson ACLU member, said it would "push city and county government into illegal political quicksand."

The ACLU recently challenged public prayer by city and county officials who offer prayers in Jesus' name at Anderson City Council, Seneca City Council and Oconee County Council meetings .

Public officials can't favor one religion or denomination over others in government meetings, said Mike Cubelo, president of the ACLU-SC Piedmont Chapter.

The state's continued growth and diversity "requires sensitivity that we are all not the same," said Greenville attorney Neil Caesar, vice president and counsel for the ACLU chapter.

Barrett's bill would remove federal jurisdiction in these issues to state courts, letting states make their own decisions, and is "a baby step" that "would allow elected and appointed public officials to pray in public as they see fit" regardless of their religion or religious orientation, he said.

The recent ACLU challenge put the issue "on the front burner," but Barrett said he's thought about this much longer.

"The First Amendment gives us freedom of religion not from religion," Barrett said.

Prayer by public officials doesn't establish religion and citizens have a right to pray as they see fit, said Barrett, who has offered prayers at public meetings in Jesus' name.

He said no one has ever discouraged him from ending his prayers that way.

"We talk about being tolerant towards other people. This is trying to be tolerant," Barrett said. "If I am a Christian, people need to be tolerant to me. If you are a Jew, I need to be tolerant to your religion."

Cubelo disagreed, citing a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision against the town of Great Falls.

"Public officials can't favor one religion over another in public meetings. His bill is irrelevant under current South Carolina law," Cubelo said.

"We're talking about the Constitution, and there has always been the principal that no public body can favor one religion over another," Cubelo said. "In a way, he's trying to put a loophole in the Constitution. He is endorsing government religion and government prayer with his legislation."

However, Cubelo spoke in support of the prayer rally.

"The ACLU supports their rally. That is part of our constitutional rights," Cubelo said. "The ACLU supports the right to pray anywhere you want. It is only when a government official at a government meeting says a prayer that there is a problem."

Cubelo said a moment of silence would be appropriate at government meetings "because then anyone can pray as they want."

Caesar said Barrett's bill "would be unlikely to pass or survive legal scrutiny" because issue can't be moved from federal to state courts and the basic premise "is incorrect."

Public elected officials have the right to pray as they wish in their private lives but not in their governmental roles at government meetings, Caesar said.

While the ACLU leaders said the court ruling against Great Falls sets state law, state Attorney General Henry McMaster has disagreed and said no law prevents public officials from praying as they wish at meetings.