Council to stick with its prayers

Fredericksburg, Va., City Council member Hashmel C. Turner Jr. says he will say a Christian prayer at the start of a public meeting tonight, defying a recent federal court ruling that such a practice is unconstitutional.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the unanimous decision Thursday on a case involving town council meetings in South Carolina that start with a prayer that includes references to Jesus Christ. The three-judge panel said the practice was an unconstitutional government advancement of a single religion.

Still, Mr. Turner says he will continue to say the prayers that mention Christianity and Jesus Christ despite the ruling, which applies to all legislative bodies in Maryland, West Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as Virginia, unless the case is taken to a higher court.

“I have no intention of compromising my prayer language,” said Mr. Turner, an associate minister atFirst Baptist Church of Love. “The way that things are in the world today, the one thing I believe is needed is prayer.”

Mr. Turner has served on the seven-member council since 2002.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has asked the City Council to discourage Mr. Turner from delivering his sectarian prayers, saying his actions indicate the government prefers one religion over others.

“It is unconstitutional to open a meeting with a sectarian prayer,” said Kent Willis, executive director of the Richmond-based ACLU. “That is clear and unambiguous.”

He also said the group would help a resident’s legal challenge of the prayer but would rather avoid “costly and timely litigation.”

Fredericksburg City Attorney James M. Pates will be distributing a copy of the South Carolina case at tonight’s meeting and that his office is “scrutinizing” the case to learn its implications for the council.

Mr. Pates, who has held the post 18 years, said he will not try to stop Mr. Turner from saying the prayer.

“This is a small town, and neither the city nor the Rev. Turner is looking for a fight on this one,” he said. “The city council has never advanced any particular religion or denomination, nor has it attempted to do so. We make an effort not to promote or infringe on any particular religious belief or practice.”

Mr. Willis said the ACLU was alerted to the prayers last year by a Fredericksburg resident who became uncomfortable during a council meeting. Others have complained informally to the ACLU.

Mr. Willis, who lives in Fredericksburg, wrote Mr. Turner a letter, explaining that it was OK to pray at meetings as long as the prayers do not promote a single religion.

Mr. Turner then took himself out of the council prayer rotation, saying he would rather not pray if he couldn’t invoke Jesus.

Charlottesville’s Rutherford Institute told Mr. Turner he had a right to deliver the prayers and that the group would represent him in a legal challenge.

But the group’s president, John Whitehead, reviewed the ruling and suggested yesterday that Mr. Turner use the words “in God’s name” or “in His name” instead of citing “Jesus Christ.”

“The case doesn’t say you can’t pray,” Mr. Whitehead said. “It only says you can’t invoke a specific deity.”

The Virginia General Assembly has opening prayers before each daily session, but those are nonsectarian in nature.

Several state legislators are ordained and led prayers during the session, and clergymen of many faiths are invited to lead prayers, though they are reminded that an interdenominational message is preferred.

Delegate Ward L. Armstrong, Henry County Democrat, led a prayer during this year’s session that was intentionally “devoid of any denominational references,” he said.

“It’s important to be sensitive to different faiths,” Mr. Armstrong said.

The court’s ruling came after a Wiccan high priestess sued the town council of Great Falls, S.C. because its leaders refused to lead prayers that don’t invoke a single religion or to allow members of different faiths to lead the prayers. The woman claimed she was ostracized for refusing to stand and bow her head during the Christian prayers.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan of Rock Hill, S.C., ruled last August that the prayers violated the First Amendment’s establishment of religion clause. The appeals court agreed, citing U.S. Supreme Court rulings that allow only generic prayers by government bodies.

“The [council] remains free to engage in such invocations prior to council meetings,” 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote.

“The opportunity to do so may provide a source of strength to believers, and a time of quiet reflection for all. This opportunity does not, however, provide the town council, or any other legislative body, license to advance its own religious views in preference to all others, as the town council did here.”

There may be more to come in the South Carolina case, however, as the defendants could ask for an opinion from the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or could petition the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.