WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) -- A federal judge is recommending that a North Carolina county be ordered to stop allowing sectarian prayers at meetings of its board of commissioners.

Stephen Corts

Trevor Sharpe, a magistrate judge for the U.S. Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, recommended Nov. 9 that the court issue an injunction to prevent prayers that he found overwhelmingly sectarian at meetings of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.

A policy adopted in 2007 allows the board to invite a minister to offer an invocation or prayer to solemnize proceedings. The policy invites local ministers who respond to an invitation to offer prayer on a first-come, first-served basis. It advises the religious leader to offer an invitation "according to the dictates of [the leader's] own conscience, but requests the prayer opportunity "not be exploited as an effort" to convert others and asks participants to "maintain a spirit of respect and ecumenism."

In practice, the judge found, the prayers overwhelmingly mentioned Jesus Christ, having the effect of favoring Christianity over other religions.

The county had argued that the prayers offered by visiting ministers were their private speech, but Sharpe said the prayers in Forsyth County were government speech subject to the First Amendment's ban on establishment of religion.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the recommendation "a tremendous victory for religious liberty and American pluralism."

Barry Lynn

"We are an incredibly diverse nation, and the government should never play favorites when it comes to religion," said Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

Stephen Corts, pastor of Center Grove Baptist Church in Clemmons, N.C., is chairman of North Carolina Partnership for Religious Liberty, a citizens group formed in response to the two-year-old controversy, told the Winston-Salem Journal that Sharp's recommendation "is not hopeful," but the group is prepared to pursue the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

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This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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