Coolidge City Council won't limit prayer to Christians

COOLIDGE — The Coolidge City Council, during a hastily called meeting Monday, voted unanimously to back away from a proposal to allow only Christians to pray before council meetings.

The council in the Pinal County community garnered national attention last week when it voted to consider the proposal, which was widely criticized as unconstitutional.

Councilman Robert Hudelson, who authored the resolution to limit prayer to Christian groups, spoke before he cast his vote Monday in opposition to his proposal.

"History will look back on us and say, 'There is a city council who stood for Christ and Christ alone,'" he said. "For that, we should never be ashamed."

The council then unanimously voted to allow representatives of any religious group within city limits to offer a prayer prior to a council meeting. There was no public comment, and council members said little about the vote.

"We want to move Coolidge forward," said Mayor Jon Thompson. "Now we have a legally defensible position and everyone will have a seat at the table."

Coolidge Pastor Byron Sanders of Fairhaven Baptist Church was the person who originally asked the council to begin allowing all groups to offer prayers before public meetings. He said he was horrified at the board's turn toward limiting it to Christians, and was relieved at its reversal Monday night.

"Christianity has always been inclusive," he said. "Christians settled in America to give everybody an opportunity."

He said community members who had reached out to him over the past week overwhelmingly supported the more-inclusive proposal. After each vote Monday, he gave the council a thumbs-up.

Coolidge allowed invocations before council meetings from 1996 to 2007, but stopped because of a lack of interest from religious groups, city leaders said.

The original resolution considered by the council proposed to allow members of all religious organizations within Coolidge to offer a prayer, a moment of silence or a short message at the start of council meetings.

Hudelson, who is also a Baptist pastor, suggested amending the resolution to limit it to Christian groups. His proposal passed on a 4-2 vote.

The council received legal threats from local and national civil-rights groups, including the ACLU of Arizona and the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

City Attorney Denis Fitzgibbons told the council he would rework the resolution and bring it back for a final vote. That vote wasn't expected until at least Sept. 28, but a special meeting was called to address the issue following the public outcry.

The U.S. Supreme Court in an opinion last year, Town of Greece v. Galloway, ruled prayer is permitted before public meetings as long as the community does not discriminate against minority faiths.