Written by Don Byrd
PBS’ Religion and Ethics Newsweekly takes a look at the upcoming Supreme Court case regarding legislative prayer, Town of Greece v. Galloway. The video is here. As correspondent Tim O’Brien notes in the piece, the actual outcome of the case may not matter as much as the scope of the court’s reasoning.
Over the years, no single issue has divided the Justices more sharply than questions of church and state and this case is not likely to be any exception. And as is often the case here, it may not be who wins or who loses that matters most, but rather what sort of compromise the Justices reach. Some form of legislative prayer is certain to be allowed, but how much religion is too much? Some endorsement of religion may be unavoidable. When does it become unacceptable?
The Baptist Joint Committee filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court arguing that official prayer at local government meetings should be held unconstitutional.
