Sectarian Prayer Continues In Fayetteville

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Sectarian Prayer Continues In Fayetteville

Special Report - October 15, 2007
The Fayetteville City Council will apparently continue to offer sectarian prayers at open meetings, even after a city attorney warned elected officials to avoid frequently including the name of Jesus Christ in public invocations. According to WRAL.com, Fayetteville City Attorney Karen McDonald sent a memo in May to the City Council stating that invoking the name of recognized deities, specifically Jesus, could lead to a civil lawsuit against the town. “While I fully understand that this is a sensitive topic, we must adhere to the constitutional standard that opening prayers are non-sectarian and neutral,” McDonald wrote. But Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne told WRAL on Wednesday that the memo was simply advisory and that the City Council has not voted on changing its prayer policy. Grainger Barrett, county attorney for Cumberland County, sent a similar memo to county boards and commissions in May, but it is unclear whether the county will change its policy.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (ACLU-NC) has waged an on-going campaign against sectarian prayer in counties and municipalities across the state. The ACLU-NC filed a lawsuit in March against the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners for its invocations policy. Some local governments (including the Town of Thomasville, Transylvania County, and Forsyth County) have adopted a prayer policy drafted by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the pro-family legal group that is defending Forsyth County in the ACLU-NC lawsuit. The ADF-endorsed policy allows elected officials to invite various clergy from the community to offer voluntary sectarian prayers at public meetings.