Invocation Confrontation

North Carolina Citizens File Lawsuit Challenging Sectarian Prayers At County Commissioners' Meetings

Janet Joyner has deeply personal reasons for wanting to keep a healthy distance between church and state: More than 300 years ago, her Calvinist forebears faced a tough choice when word circulated that French King Louis XIV would revoke religious toleration and make it illegal to be a Protestant.

"My ancestors had three choices: abjure their minority religion, flee or stay and be executed," she said. "So, I think that all Americans should learn about the individual right of religious conscience, the protection of minorities and the abhorrence of tyranny, whether religious or political."

These days, Joyner is putting her lifelong interest in religious liberty into action in her home community of Winston-Salem, N.C. She has joined a lawsuit there aimed at stopping local government officials from regularly opening public meetings with Christian prayer.

For the past several months, Joyner and other church-state separation activists have worked hard to raise the issue of pre-meeting prayers with local officials. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina asked officials in Winston-Salem and surrounding Forsyth County to stop opening their sessions with sectarian devotions. The civil liberties group pointed out that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has twice ruled such government-sponsored prayers unconstitutional. Non-sectarian prayers could be used instead, the ACLU noted.

Attorneys with Americans United for Separation of Church and State joined in. While the effort did bear fruit in some communities, it has not yet swayed officials in Forsyth County. Even if officials were inclined to change, they are now facing pressure from conservative ministers who are depicting the effort to drop sectarian prayers as an attack on Christianity.

In December, a delegation of 11 Baptist ministers called a press conference in Winston-Salem to send a message to local civic leaders: Go right ahead and continue opening your meetings with prayers that invoke the name of Jesus Christ.

"The purpose is for us to say to our city fathers, 'We believe that it is our right to pray the way we want to before the city council session,'" said the Rev. Ron Baity of Berean Baptist Church.

Forced into a tight spot, officials in Winston-Salem punted; they put off a decision and eventually promised to adopt a more inclusive prayer policy. But in Forsyth County, defiance was the order of the day. In January, Gloria D. Whisenhunt, chairwoman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, announced that the practice of opening its deliberations with Christian prayer would continue.

On April 2, the ACLU of North Carolina and the Winston-Salem Chapter of Americans United filed a lawsuit challenging Forsyth County's prayer policy. The case, Joyner v. Forsyth County, was brought on behalf of Joyner and two other county residents who argue that opening government meetings with sectarian invocations shows preference for one religion and fails to recognize the diversity of the region.

"Invocations should be an invitation for each to pray in his or her own way," Joyner, a retired educator and linguist who has lived in Winston-Salem for nearly 35 years, said. "For a Christian to presume to tell a Buddhist, Muslim or Jew or anyone in whose name to pray clearly crosses the line, and for government to show preference or favoritism is against the law. I expect my officials and our leaders, whether spiritual or political, to obey the law"

Joining Joyner as plaintiffs in the case are Constance Lynn Blackmon and Osborne Mauck. All three are members of Americans United.

The trio did not take this step lightly. While trying to resolve the matter outside of court, the ACLU and the local AU chapter sent letters to local governments, reminding them that sectarian prayer before meetings has been declared unconstitutional. The groups continued dialoguing with officials in Forsyth right up until the board's final defiance.

Steve Weston, president of the Winston-Salem Chapter of Americans United, has lived in the area for eight years and watched its religious diversity expand. Weston said the commissioners are reluctant to drop old habits.

"They've been praying to Jesus and Lord for a long time," Weston said. "The county commissioners are not going to change that, quite frankly, unless they are forced to."

The commissioners may very well be. The law is firmly on the side of the ACLU and the Americans United chapter. In 2004, the 4th Circuit, which is generally regarded as one of the most conservative in the nation, ruled in Wynne v. Town of Great Falls that a South Carolina community could not open its meetings with prayers that invoked Jesus. Community leaders voted to switch to non-sectarian prayers. The following year, the 4th Circuit reaffirmed the use of non-sectarian prayers in Simpson v. Chesterfield County.

In light of those rulings, AU and the ACLU have been urging other municipalities in the 4th Circuit, which includes Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and the Carolinas, to drop sectarian invocations.