TN: Sevier mayor, and the people, say prayer

Knoxville News Sentinel: “This storm of prayer had been gathering for weeks, since Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sent a mid-February letter telling Waters to end the decades-long tradition of saying the Our Father before meetings. Waters said he intended to continue to pray, and Monday night he fulfilled that promise as the familiar words of the familiar prayer rolled through the courthouse.”
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(3.3.2010) Knoxville News Sentinel: “[Mayor Larry] Waters received a letter dated Feb. 17 from AU that said two complaints had been filed about Sevier County: first, the Lord’s Prayer is recited, and second, that a ‘religious poster’ (the Ten Commandments) is displayed in the County Commission meeting room . . . ‘It’s amazing that, in a country founded on religious liberty, the centuries-old choice to open a public meeting with a prayer of the giver’s choosing is coming under attack,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson in a 2007 news release.”