COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Alliance Defense Fund has
offered its legal expertise to a South Carolina city and two
counties to help craft policies that allow prayers at council
meetings while complying with a recent court ruling prohibiting
using the name of a specific deity during those invocations.
"We're committed to assisting legislative bodies put prayer
practices in place," said Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney with the
defense fund. Tedesco said the councils haven't yet accepted his
group's offer.
The move comes after letters were sent by the American Civil
Liberties Union reminding local government councils that the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled unconstitutional a prayer
before a council meeting that invokes a specific deity.
Those rulings came after Wiccan priestess Darla Wynn sued the
town of Great Falls for praying to Jesus Christ at the start of
council meetings. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the town's
appeal, letting the lower court ruling stand.
Tedesco said Monday his organization has contacted Anderson and
Oconee counties as well as the city of Anderson.
Last week, the Rev. Bill Rinehart, an Oconee County councilman,
delivered the invocation, ending his prayer for wisdom, direction
and guidance "in the name of Jesus."
At the beginning of the Anderson County Council meeting the same
night, Councilman Michael Thompson led the invocation and prayed "in
the name of Jesus."
Anderson Mayor Richard Shirley opened a City Council meeting
earlier this month according to his custom of reading from a
collection of invocations of a former U.S. Senate chaplain. "Through
Jesus Christ Our Lord," the prayer ended.
"The City Council expressly states that this moment of prayer
should not be viewed as an attempt to establish a religion,"
according to policy of the city of Anderson. "Attendance during the
prayer by a council member or the general public is not a
requirement to participate in the City Council meeting."
Shirley said he thinks the City Council's practice of rotating
among members for the opening prayer allow it to escape the ruling's
prohibition on using the name of a specific deity.
Tedesco of the Alliance Defense Fund agrees.
The court ruling is "not a per-se ban on such things," Tedesco
said, adding that boards can pray as long as they don't favor one
religion over another. "The best way to do that is to rotate the
prayer among board
members."
