U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Prayer at Municipal Meetings

In most counties and municipalities in Northeast Georgia, prayer before a city council or county commission meeting is routine and not many object to it.

However, there are those in other parts of the country who claimed it should be banned as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s position on the separation of Church and State.   But on Monday, the U.S. Supremen Court ruled in favor of of the practice.

The Supreme Court said Monday that prayers that open town council meetings do not violate the Constitution even if they routinely stress Christianity, according to the Associated Press report.   The court said in 5-4 decision that the content of the prayers is not significant as long as officials make a good-faith effort at inclusion.

The outcome relied heavily on a 1983 decision in which the court upheld an opening prayer in the Nebraska Legislature and said prayer is part of the nation’s fabric, not a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion.

Writing for the court on Monday, Justice Anthony Kennedy said that forcing clergy to scrub the prayers of references to Jesus Christ and other sectarian religious figures would turn officials into censors.  Instead, Kennedy said, the prayers should be seen as ceremonial and in keeping with the nation’s traditions.

“The inclusion of a brief, ceremonial prayer as part of a larger exercise in civic recognition suggests that its purpose and effect are to acknowledge religious leaders and the institutions they represent, rather than to exclude or coerce nonbelievers,” he said.

Kennedy  said judges should not be involved in evaluating the content of prayer because it could lead to legislatures requiring “chaplains to redact the religious content from their message in order to make it acceptable for the public sphere.”

He added the federal government may not mandate a civic religion that stifles any but the most generic reference to the sacred any more than it may prescribe a religious orthodoxy.

 

 

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