Being House speaker occasionally means you have to cut off a speech or rule someone out of order. But before Tuesday, that involved other lawmakers or someone in the audience, not the clergy giving the opening prayer.

Being House speaker occasionally means you have to cut off a speech or rule someone out of order. But before Tuesday, that involved other lawmakers or someone in the audience, not the clergy giving the opening prayer.

When the prayer delivered by Pastor B.J. Van Aman of the Pickerington Baptist Temple ventured past five minutes in length, House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, took what could be an unprecedented step of politely cutting him off. You can see the interaction here just before the 7-minute mark.

�I didn�t mean to be rude and I feel terrible,� Rosenberger said. �It�s just that I felt that I gave it its due diligence. When I thought it was enough I didn�t know really how best to do it, so I just said �amen� and here we go.�

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Lawmakers are welcome to invite religious leaders from their district to deliver an opening prayer to the House, as Rep. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, did on Tuesday. Most prayers don�t go longer than 60 or 90 seconds, often delivering messages of inspiration and asking for wisdom and guidance.

House guidelines are largely based on a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring opening prayers to be nondenominational, nonsectarian and nonproselytizing.

The prayer on Tuesday mentioned �Though the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,� and went on to describe Jesus, whose �name is above every name,� and at his name �every knee shall bow.� It also described Jesus as the �author and finisher of our faith.�

Rosenberger first peeked an eye open about three minutes in. At nearly four minutes, he opened his eyes and began looking around, clearly growing anxious about the length and trying to decide the right way to end it.

After just over five minutes, with no clear conclusion on the horizon, Rosenberger blurted out an �amen,� thanked Van Aman for being here and then motioned toward the flag to start the Pledge of Allegiance.

�I am speaker, so whether it�s floor action or the pastor giving the prayer, I feel I make the determination when we need to move it on,� Rosenberger said.

He was not the only one who felt that way. After the Pledge of Allegiance, a hot mic picked up a female voice on the floor: �That was a sermon.�

Rosenberger�s action earned praise from Rep. Mike Curtin, D-Marble Cliff, who called it "entirely appropriate." Curtin covered the legislature for The Dispatch in the 1980s and did a story on the then-House chaplain, the Rev. Kenneth Grimes, a Catholic who was admired for his counsel and prayers that mixed inspiration and humor.

�He was very careful to acknowledge that the General Assembly is a diverse body,� Curtin said. "The opening prayer should reflect that diversity. It should reflect the Constitutional acknowledgement of there not being a state religion."

That, Curtin said, means not infusing the name of Jesus Christ into many lines of the prayer.

�I don�t think any members take objection to a Christian clergyman or woman making reference to Jesus Christ. But what we�ve had lately in this chamber for a period of years now is a heavy, almost Christian proselytizing as the opening prayer, which in my view is inappropriate,� Curtin said.

The House has not had a designated chaplain for more than 20 years.

Members, Curtin said, need to school visiting clergy on the protocol. Rosenberger agreed that members may need to do a better job briefing their guests on expectations prior to the prayer.

Over-the-top sermonizing, Curtin said, �doesn�t have a place in the public body.�

This is not the first time opening prayer has become an issue in the House. In 2007 under then-Speaker Jon Husted, the issue reached a tipping point when two Democrats walked off the floor during a prayer that made multiple references to Jesus and mentioned a controversial bill up for a vote that day.

That sparked a memo from the House clerk to members about the disregard for minister guidelines, �specifically the increasing tendency of our guest invocators to use language referring to a particular deity.�

For a brief time, the House began enforcing a requirement that all prayers from guest ministers be delivered to the clerk's office 72 hours in advance. The requirement was dropped after a few weeks.

jsiegel@dispatch.com

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