Tag Archives: Topic: Prayer

Lancaster Online: Prayers were said at Monday’s Eastern Lancaster County school board meeting, the first meeting with a public comment period since the district stopped opening its meetings with prayer.

WDBJ7.com: Roanoke County lawyer Paul Mahoney said he put in a lot of work to draft a policy that didn’t discriminate or set out to cause any religious divides. Mahoney got help drafting the 12-page resolution from the Liberty Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Religion Clause Blog: As previously reported, last March Florida’s legislature, at the urging of school prayer proponents, passed a new law authorizing school districts to adopt policies permitting inspirational messages to be composed and delivered by students at student assemblies.

Star Telegram: The district says the students are speaking under a state law that requires school districts to establish a “limited public forum,” giving students the right to speak publicly before all school events. Juniors and seniors interested in speaking are selected at random, Birdville schools spokesman Mark Thomas said.

Christian Institute: Highland Council has removed prayer from its formal meeting agenda after secularists threatened legal action.

LA Times: More than 20,000 Muslims gathered at the baseball stadium in a historic event organized by leaders of three mosques – the Islamic Center of Irvine, the Islamic Institute of Orange County in Anaheim and the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove. The three mosques are members of the Islamic Shura Council.

The Church Report: Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Friday to a Minneapolis-area senior living complex that banned a widow from praying, reading her Bible, and discussing her faith in private conversations with other residents in the commons area. The complex wrongly claims that it cannot allow the senior or any other resident to engage in private religious expression because it accepts government funds.

WATE.com: The group Americans United for Separation of Church and State posted a video to YouTube showing what it says is a local pastor praying before a recent Lenor City School board meeting.

Church Report: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Wednesday he will defend high school cheerleaders who want to use Bible verses on banners at football games . . . “This is student-led expression, and that’s perfectly constitutional,” Abbott said. “We will not allow atheist groups from outside the state of Texas to come into the state to use menacing and misleading and intimidating tactics to try to bully schools to bow down to the alter of secular beliefs.”

The Mississippi Press: The American Civil Liberties Union demanded Wednesday that a south Mississippi school stop holding prayers and promoting religious activities at games and other events.

Carolina Live (includes video): Tuesday evening Georgetown County School Board held a meeting with a full agenda. One thing that wasn’t on there though, was a prayer. After ACLU sent a Freedom of Information Act request to all South Carolina school districts asking about prayer in their schools, in response, Georgetown County pulled prayer from their meetings.

Religion Clause Blog: In Wood County, Texas yesterday, a state trial court dismissed a lawsuit that had been brought challenging the County Commissioners’ routine opening of their sessions with prayer and seeking removal of the “In God We Trust” motto prominently displayed in the county commissioners’ meeting room.

PR Newswire: Today, Liberty Institute and its local counsel Bryan Hughes on behalf of the Wood County Commissioner’s Court applauds the ruling of a state district judge who granted a summary judgment, dismissing the lawsuit against the County for opening its sessions in prayer and for displaying in its courtroom America’s national motto “In God We Trust.” The ruling was made during a summary judgment hearing at the Wood County Courthouse in Quitman, Texas.

Rev. Mark H. Creech at Christian Post: Since the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Joyner v. Forsyth County that prayers offered in Jesus’ name are unconstitutional and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal, some 25 to 30 government bodies across North Carolina have been in the cross hairs of groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Humanist Association. They demand that any sectarian prayers cease and desist.
The ruling essentially turned the First Amendment on its head.

WMBFNews.com: The prayer approved Tuesday is designed to include people of all faiths, and reads: Almighty God, Creator and sustainer of all that is or will ever be, accept our profound gratitude for this day, and all of its blessings of life and freedom. We remember those who make our freedom possible. It is because of their sacrifice that our community can practice our shared and enduring values of varied expressions of faith, civic duty and respect for all. We gather today to render our public service in a proper manner, and perform our civic duties in good order. Therefore, we solemnly invoke Divine wisdom and guidance for this Council in this day’s meeting. Amen.

Herald-Mail.com: After prayerfully opening its meetings for decades, the Tuscarora School Board is considering whether “thy will be done” might need to fall to a court’s will. At issue is whether a longtime board practice of praying in unison aloud in meetings can continue in light of Doe vs. Indian River School District, a 2011 ruling by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling found that prayer at school district meetings violates First Amendment rights.

WDTV.com: “Christian students have the right to peacefully express their faith at school. They do not shed their constitutional freedoms at the schoolhouse gate or in the stadium parking lot,” said Jeremy Dys, president and general counsel of the FPCWV. “Misinformed public school officials should not cater to pressure from activists who demand that religious students be silenced; rather, they should understand that the Constitution permits students to pray—and pray publicly—before football games.” . . . “Our government and courts have already spoken: students have a constitutionally protected right to participate in peaceful, public expressions of prayer and worship. Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Policy Council of West Virginia stand with students across West Virginia as they exercise their religious liberty,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Matt Sharp.

FFRF: As Sheriff, your overt promotion of religion using your official title, badge, and seal gives the unfortunate impression that the County supports and endorses particular religious rituals . . . pparently, the OSCO believes that this prayer will lower crime: “According to Chaplain Willie James Barnes, praying for safer streets is something that works. He was part of a similar project with Orlando police in 2008. ‘It worked. We did it all over the city of Orlando, and I’ll tell you the crime rate went down,’ said Barnes.” The members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation believe that nothing fails like prayer. Prayer is the ultimate cop-out, the ultimate admission that the invoker is giving up, is transferring personal responsibility to an imaginary being. It is particularly vexing to see people congratulate themselves for praying or holding a prayer rally, instead of taking meaningful action, such as working for rational regulation assault rifles and those who purchase them.

Attorneys with the Family Policy Council of West Virginia and Alliance Defending Freedom submitted a legal memoto Kanawha County Schools Wednesday in response to an atheist group’s recent demand that the district prevent public invocations before high school football games.

Christian Post: The City Council of Colorado Springs has stated that they intend to keep their invocation prayers, even as Pueblo City Council agreed to discontinue the practice in response to criticism from an atheist organization

Baptist Press: The University of Tennessee, in rejecting a request from the Freedom From Religion Foundation to eliminate the Volunteers’ traditional pregame prayer, has garnered praise from the Alliance Defending Freedom. South Carolina is the only other university in the SEC to offer a public invocation prior to football games.”We’re very pleased that the University of Tennessee has seen fit to disregard the Freedom From Religion Foundation,” said Travis Barham, litigation staff counsel for ADF. “We hope they continue to do that because the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been distorting the law, twisting the law, to support its jaundiced view of religion, its jaundiced view of the First Amendment.”

Fox News: “As such, one might expect Pueblo politicians to ignore the foundation’s threat,” he said. “Instead, they fell over without putting up a fight. We expect a more vigorous defense of our most basic freedoms — religious liberty and free speech.”

ABQ Journal: The controversial exclusion of coach-led prayer in Portales city league sports has sparked questions about prayer at other public and government-funded venues. According to league sports Director Mike Doerr, coach-led prayer was eliminated to avoid possible legal issues as well as respecting the diversity represented in the league.

Religion Clause Blog: Alliance Defending Freedom announced that it stands ready to provide free defense for any students who have been prevented or discouraged by public school officials from participating in the event. ADF has also released a legal memo . . .

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys are ready to defend, free of charge, students who have been prevented or discouraged by public school officials from participating in Wednesday’s “See You at the Pole” event.

Pueblo Chieftain: City Council has opened its regular public meetings for decades with a prayer — usually delivered by local ministers, sometimes by council members — but always after asking the audience to stand for that moment of divine invocation . . .

9news.com (AP): The switch was made after the city received a letter from the Freedom of Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis., arguing it is unconstitutional

CBN (includes video): Students gathered for the 22nd annual “See You at the Pole” event at schools across the country Wednesday.

Statesman.com: Passionate calls to action were met with a chorus of “amens” at the Hays County Commissioners Court this morning as about 25 residents urged commissioners to continue starting their weekly meetings with a prayer.

Standard.net: Sissonville High School has stopped offering a prayer before football games after a national organization told school officials the practice is unconstitutional.

Times Dispatch: U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski agreed Friday to let the board and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia try to reach a settlement after both sides requested it.

“Public universities should respect, not squelch, the religious traditions of students. We applaud the University of Tennessee for continuing prayers at events, including football games. Federal courts have repeatedly recognized that the Establishment Clause does not require universities to purge their events of all things religious. The chancellor was right to align with the 6th Circuit which recognized that ‘[t]he people of the United States did not adopt the Bill of Rights to strip the public square of every last shred of public piety.’”

Tucson Citizen: The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Scottsdale non-profit group, is representing councils in other states in challenges to legislative prayer. Their focus is to “defend the exercise of religious liberty and the right of government to recognize religious heritage and continue with traditional American practices,” said senior counsel Brett Harvey. “We think it’s a constitutional right to do this,” said Harvey, citing the Marsh vs. Chambers case. “We do feel there’s a benefit to seeking divine guidance and asking for wisdom and blessings for the decisions that are made. The Supreme Court has made it clear that it’s constitutional. We see no reason why our local officials should not be able to exercise those same rights exercised by our founders.”

Newsok.com: See You At The Pole, the annual student-led prayer initiative popular in the Oklahoma City metro as well as cities across the state and country, will be Wednesday, Sept. 26.

WREG.com: The Memphis City Council has adopted a new policy for the invocations held before each council meeting . . . The policy also advises as to how groups can sign up to be apart of the invocation.You can find the complete policy here: Prayer_Resolution-AJWv2

WBIR.com: On Wednesday, UT Chancellor Jimmy Cheek responded to the group with a letter, stating that it will stand by the tradition of prayer before UT events.

Sacramento Bee: Officials with the Grove City Area School District, about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, did not immediately return a call for comment on Wednesday’s announcement by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis.

WTSP: For the first time since the prayers began all those years ago, the loud speaker was silenced. In their first home game against Bowdon things were a lot different. The changes came after a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation was sent to Haralson County Schools Superintendent Brett Stanton.

AZ Central: Gilbert Public Schools governing board candidate Daryl Colvin is among a group of town residents who are upset that the school board decided not to discuss bringing back a non-denominational prayer at the beginning of its meetings. The school board used to have an invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance but replaced the prayer with a moment of silence in August 2001.

Douglas County Sentinel: At last Friday’s Haralson County Rebels football game, thousands of residents came out to show their support for the team; however, many were reportedly there to show their support for team prayer.

Cape Gazette: Council approved an agreement with litigants that will allow an invocation before each council meeting. Council has recited The Lord’s Prayer for decades, but it became the subject of a lawsuit, Mullin v. Sussex County, filed in June 2011 in U.S. District Court by Americans United for Separation of Church and State on behalf of four Sussex residents.

Chattanoogan: UTC officials said Monday that opening prayers at Moc football games will be discontinued in favor of a moment of silence.

The New American: For the past 50 years or so the Friday night football games at Haralson County High School in Tallapoosa, Georgia have started the same way, with prayer, most recently offered by the team’s chaplain, a local minister. But September 7 the tradition of reverence and faith came to a screeching halt as the school district’s superintendent, Brett Stanton, caved in to the intimidation of the Freedom From Religion Foundation . . .

AP: Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan says he supports prayer in public schools if approved by states.

NorthEscambia.com: The Escambia County (Ala.) School District has banned prayers at events like football games, but that did not stop a group of Flomaton High students from taking a stand on the football field last Friday. The students stood hand-in-hand along the sidelines before the game in prayer. No faculty or staff took part in the student led, student initiated prayer.

Alan E. Sears at the Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: August was a wonderful month for your liberty at Alliance Defending Freedom, in which God has reminded us time and again, across a spectrum of important cases, how much He is blessing your good prayers and generous support for the work of defending religious freedom across our nation. Some highlights . . .

The New American: Attorney Brett Harvey of the conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom applauded the ruling, noting that “since this nation’s founding, public meetings have been opened with prayer. There is no legal reason why Hamilton County’s citizens should be denied this freedom under the county’s policy.” Harvey emphasized that prayer “has always been lawful in America, and the district court rightly declined to stop the county from including prayer at its meetings. Secularist groups might not be happy with this, but an invocation offered according to the dictates of the giver’s conscience as part of a policy like Hamilton County’s is not an establishment of religion.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: A New York middle school student does not have a constitutional right to recite a prayer from the Bible during a graduation ceremony, Americans United told a federal appeals court recently. The case, A.M. ex rel. McKay v. Taconic Hills Central School Distric

Bayshorebroadcasting.ca: For the first time ever today, Grey County council opened their meeting with a new, neutral prayer — instead of the Lord’s Prayer. And Bruce-Grey-Owen-Sound MP Larry Miller says it’s time to get up and say something about what’s happening.

Robert George at the Wall Street Journal (via Google): If, as the Obama-Biden campaign alleges, there is a “war on women,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, is its field marshal. If opposition to same-sex marriage is “bigotry,” as many on the left insist, then Cardinal Dolan—as the most prominent defender of marriage as the union of husband and wife—is the country’s leading bigot.

WRCBTV.com (includes video): Commission Chairman Larry Henry and County Attorney Rheubin Taylor have referred all questions to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Arizona-based Christian legal group who authored its new prayer policy. The ADF also is lead defense counsel and is paying the Commission’s costs of defending its prayer policies.

TimesFreePress: Walker County, Ga., school officials said Ridgeland High School isn’t violating athletes’ First Amendment rights and the football team will continue to have student-led prayers and church-held meals before games.

Since this nation’s founding, public meetings have been opened with prayer. There is no legal reason why Hamilton County’s citizens should be denied this freedom under the county’s policy, which the court today affirmed as constitutional.

KRMG.com: It just might be the very first time ever in Tulsa that an atheist will lead the prayer before the next meeting at city hall.

AP: Cardinal Timothy Dolan says he’s now giving the closing prayer at both the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Commercial Appeal: The Freedom From Religion Foundation announced plans Sunday to sue the Memphis City Council over the opening prayer said before each meeting, calling it an unconstitutional breach of the separation of church and state.

Liberty Counsel: Today, Liberty Counsel offered free counsel and legal defense to Georgia’s Walker County Public School Board in response to the recent threats from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). In its letter to the school superintendent, FFRF makes a number of assertions, leading off with the most ridiculous: “Taking public school football teams to church, even for a meal, is unconstitutional.”

FFRF: Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert sent letters to the Octorara Area School Board in Atglen, the Eastern Lancaster County School Board in New Holland, the Big Spring School Board in Newville and the Greencastle-Antrim School Board in Greencastle. In all instances, a local complainant had alerted FFRF to the violations.

Hattiesburg American: Several Pine Belt school districts have decided not to have prayer before home football games this season following their receipt of a letter from a Wisconsin group warning that the practice is illegal. The Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison, Wis., sent the letter to 151 Mississippi public school superintendents last September.

WRCBTV: The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state-church watchdog group has written another letter to a Georgia school over complaints it has received about Ridgeland High School football coach Mark Mariakis.

Washington Times: Starting at the end of this month the Democratic National Convention will open with a focus on Islam; 20,000 Muslims are expected to attend, according to the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs, the national Muslim American non-profit coordinating the two days of events they claim are non-political.

The New American: The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which has gained its reputation (and a tidy living for its employees) by suing school districts and municipalities over public prayer, has chosen schools in Mississippi and Tennessee as its latest targets. According to the Mississippi Press website, the Wisconsin-based atheist group has threatened all 151 Mississippi school superintendents with lawsuits if they allow prayer over public address systems during school football games.

Wall Street Journal: In a letter sent to all public schools in the state, the ACLU of South Carolina said the campaign is trying to ensure that schools do not impose or promote religion, and adds that, “based on complaints received by the ACLU, many school districts are failing to honor this vital constitutional mandate.”

CBS New York: Muslims who gathered for prayer to celebrate the end of Ramadan in a city park found bacon scattered on the ground, CBS 2’s John Slattery reported Monday.

GulfLive.com: The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has issued a warning to Mississippi’s 151 school superintendents regarding prayers before tonight’s season-opening high school football games, according to several news organizations and social media sites.

WorldNetDaily: More than a year ago, preacher Bradlee Dean of the You Can Run But You Can’t Hide International ministry rocked Minnesota – and much of the nation – with a “non-denominational prayer” at the Minnesota state House that ended “in Jesus’ name.”

AP on NECN.com: An atheist group has asked the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga to discontinue Christian prayers before football games.

NPR (includes audio): Advocates say a public prayer amendment to the Missouri state constitution will strengthen the right to pray in public. But critics say it’ll marginalize non-Christians. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with Missouri State Rep. Mike McGhee who sponsored the initiative, and the Anti-Defamation League’s Karen Aroesty, who opposes it.

PNJ.com: The American Civil Liberties Union is accusing teachers and administrators at an Escambia County charter school of promoting their religious beliefs to students and demanding that they stop.

WRCBTV: The Wednesday morning meeting of the Hamilton County Commission started with a lengthy public prayer and ended with political fireworks directed at the county school board.

One News Now (AP): A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s proclamations declaring a state “day of prayer.”

Cape Gazette: Councilman Vance Phillips, R-Laurel, who has been among the staunchest supporters of opening meetings with The Lord’s Prayer, told Betts council members have been placed in a precarious position. He said if council fails to abide by the court injunction and recites The Lord’s Prayer anyway, council members could be arrested or the county could be fined. “People tell me we should be willing to go to jail for this,” he said. “But what if the fine is $10,000 a day? What would you have us do?” he asked. He didn’t get an answer. The county’s lead attorney, Everett Moore, cut in before Betts could respond, reminding Phillips that the issue was not an agenda item and could not be discussed.

Deseret News: Spiritual leaders will give invocations and benedictions each day at the Republican National Convention. Will Mitt Romney ask anyone from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to offer a blessing?

Missouri Family Policy Council: Missouri now has the strongest state constitutional provisions protecting the free exercise of religion of any state in the nation. Missouri voters declared in no uncertain terms that religious freedom is a paramount fundamental constitutional right, and they want to see that it is respected and accommodated in the public square.

Religion Clause Blog: Missouri voters yesterday approved state Constitutional Amendment 2 by a vote of 82.8% in favor and 17.2% against. (Official results.) The measure was described briefly on the ballot . . .

Bayshore Broadcasting.ca (includes audio): Despite being slapped with a lawsuit, Grey County Council began its meeting on Tuesday with the Lord’s Prayer.