ACLU Request Hasn’t A Prayer
Posted on April 26, 2006
Once again, America’s number one religious censor is attempting to stomp on the first amendment, and deny people the right to freely express their religion.
RALEIGH – City Council members refused Tuesday to strip Jesus, Buddha, Guru Nanak or any other religious figures from the prayers that open its meetings, bracing for a legal fight with the American Civil Liberties Union.
An April 10 letter from the ACLU asked that Raleigh instruct all clergy to steer clear of specific religious references at council meetings.But the council’s Law and Public Safety Committee opted to risk a lawsuit, arguing that the prayers expose citizens to a variety of faiths and bring needed comfort in a hot-tempered political climate.
“You talk about civility,” Councilman James West said. “That brings a little calmness and civility.”
Prayers open each meeting of the full eight-member council, which still must vote on whether to change the policy. Raleigh’s leaders defend the practice by noting that multiple faiths — Coptic, Baptist, Jewish, Muslim — attend.
Ralph Puccini, the city’s assistant deputy clerk, selects a church from the Yellow Pages and invites a prayer leader from there to each meeting.
What would actually violate the First Amendment would be the ACLU’s proposal. For the city to tell who someone could and could not pray to would be prohibiting the free exercise, something clearly prohibited in the Constitution. Others agree, that this is just another bullying attempt of the ACLU to censor religion.
No one from the ACLU attended the meeting Tuesday. Similar letters have been sent to Pittsboro, Clayton and Chatham County commissioners, whose members also rebuffed the ACLU.
In its letter, the group cites the First Amendment, which prohibits Congress from making a law “respecting the establishment of religion.”
The group has asked to review any letter to be sent to clergy asking for religion-neutral prayer, and it had set an April 24 deadline. Last week, ACLU executive director Jennifer Rudinger would not speculate on what steps the group might take next.
Three speakers at the committee meeting Tuesday urged council members not to give in.
Raleigh would find trouble if it imposed a program that forbade praying to Jesus or Allah, said Steve Noble of the conservative Christian group Called2Action. Inviting people to share their faiths publicly is different, Noble told the committee.
“The ACLU is hoping — I would dare say they’re praying — that you don’t do your homework,” he said. “The ACLU likes to bully, and sometimes you’ve got to punch a bully in the nose.”
The Rev. Renee Bethea, an activist in West Raleigh’s Method neighborhood who also spoke at the committee meeting, said no one can give instructions for prayer.
“You cannot tell anybody what name to pray to,” she said. “They are not praying to you. They may be praying for you.”
Amen to that in Jesus name! We continue to urge everyone’s prayers for the ACLU to wake up, and start defending the Constitution instead of destroying it. A friend of mine is asking why a huge group of people don’t get together for a prayer vigil outside the ACLU offices?
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» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, Church And State, News
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3 Responses to “ACLU Request Hasn’t A Prayer”
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I like it when I hear American sounding like Americans. “Give me liberty or give me death.”
Ha, good! They don’t deserve a prayer. May all their efforts be as fruitless.
Amen.
“…prayers expose citizens to a variety of faiths and bring needed comfort in a hot-tempered political climate.”
First Amendment concerns aside, who does this goofball think he’s kidding? Prayer has not once succeeded in easing political tensions, but sectarian religions have certainly proven efficient at causing and propagating them.
Osiris be praised.