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Councilman Would Fix Prayer Policy High Point City Councilman Mike Pugh has indicated he will again pursue a change to the Council’s policy on prayer at meetings that would allow sectarian prayers referencing specific deities, including the name of Jesus, according to the High Point Enterprise. In 2007, the council enacted a nonsectarian prayer policy that allows references to God, but not to specific deities after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina objected to some council members including the name “Jesus Christ” in the body’s opening prayers. Pugh was the only council member to vote against the nonsectarian policy. Pugh has enlisted the help of the Rutherford Institute, which defines itself as “a civil liberties organization that provides free legal services to people whose constitutional and human rights have been threatened or violated.” Legal staff for the city and Mayor Becky Smothers all point to the pending appeal regarding Forsyth County’s prayer policy before government meetings as reason to stick with their own current nonsectarian policy. In that case, Joyner v. Forsyth County, the ACLU challenged Forsyth County’s public prayer policy, which allows various clergy members from the community to pray to specific deities, including “in the name of Jesus,” prior to meetings of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, on behalf of two Winston-Salem residents. The County, with the legal aid of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), is appealing a federal district judge’s ruling that the policy is an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. “It’s just become evident to me Christianity has come under attack, and the prayer issue is just another example of that attack,” Pugh told the High Point Enterprise. “I know Christians as a whole are becoming frustrated and concerned about the attack on our religion. I don’t want to infringe on anyone else’s rights, and I certainly don’t want anyone to infringe on my faith.”Related resources: Copyright © 2010. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.
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