Public Invocations
Posted by Administrator on May 21, 2008
By now, you may have heard that the Family Policy Council of WV and the Alliance Defense Fund issued a letter to the Charles Town City Council earlier this week. (If you have not, visit our website where you can download both the letter and accompanying model policy.)
Our letter was far from condemnatory of the council’s action to insert a moment of silence, rather than their traditional opening prayer. Instead, it is our intent to provide city councils and county commissions throughout West Virginia with a model policy that we believe will survive constitutional scrutiny, while allowing our leader to acknowledge West Virginia’s religious history.
While it appears that the ACLU or Americans United for the Separation of Church and State were not involved in this situation, their regular letters of intimidation addressed to local leaders nationwide is becoming more and more regular. We can be sure that such plans are afoot. Rather than wait for the inevitable, we recommend that our local leaders be prepared by adopting policies like the one sent to the Charles Town City Council this week.
Just because a Christian prays it does not mean prayers in public violate the Constitution. On the contrary, the First Amendment allows our leaders to encourage public expressions of faith.
