Written by Don Byrd
A federal judge in North Carolina halted the Rowan County Commission’s practice of opening meetings with sectarian prayer today. The injunction is in place pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU-NC challenging the almost exclusively Christian prayers.
“Defendant Rowan County, North Carolina is hereby enjoined from knowingly and/or intentionally delivering or allowing to be delivered sectarian prayers at meetings of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners during the pendency of this suit,” says a docket entry for U.S. Middle District Court.
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In a phone interview minutes after Beaty submitted his decision Tuesday, [plaintiff Liesa] Montag-Siegel described her reaction as “delighted.”“We feel that the judge recognized that the law applies to everyone and that what we’re asking for — which is for people to feel equal and for people to not feel left out when they come to meeting — has has been listened to,” she said.
Legislative prayer cases sometimes get side-tracked into a battle over sectarian invocations, and rotating clergy or other complex systems for choosing the person to deliver the prayer. But at the end of the day, these cases are less about the folks delivering the prayers and more about the constituents who are attending. We should be able to attend official meetings of our elected representatives without feeling alienated from our government due to our religious beliefs.
