Unconstitutional establishment of religion: Pastor Doyle Kelley, acting as Chaplain for the Day in the Georgia State House chamber, delivers an invocation declaring that 70 percent of the state’s residents are “on their way to Hell.”

Pastor Kelley, father of Georgia State Rep. Trey Kelley, was delivering the daily invocation on the House floor when he claimed that “70 percent of the people in the state of Georgia” are “on their way to Hell.”

Towards the end of his fire-and-brimstone invocation, Pastor Kelley declared:

The command is there: Do all in the name of Jesus Christ. People always ask me, ‘Why are there so many lost people in the state of Georgia?’ The statistics came out that there’s 70 percent of the people in the state of Georgia that are lost. That are lost. Seventy percent. There are over 10 million people in the state of Georgia. That means there are 7 million people lost. Now you want to hear it in Baptist terms: Seven million people that are lost are dying and on their way to Hell. That’s what that means.

Watch the entire invocation below; relevant remarks begin at 31:27 –

The over-the-top fire-and-brimstone sermon delivered on the Georgia House floor was met with criticism and concerns that the divisive rhetoric violated the separation of church and state guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

In fact, Georgia Democratic state Rep. Josh McLaurin wrote a letter to House Speaker David Ralston’s legal counsel expressing his concern that the invocation may have gone over the line, and violated the Constitution.

In his letter Rep. McLaurin explains that he only wants to “ensure that legislative prayer in our chamber is always consistent with the First Amendment.” McLaurin writes:

On their face — and regardless of the specific subject matter to which the guest chaplain was referring, political or otherwise — these comments appear to fall outside the boundaries established by the U.S. Supreme Court for constitutional legislative prayer. As you are aware, the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence allows an exception for legislative prayer like the kind conducted in the House of Representatives each day of session, but constitutional problems arise when there is an indication “that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief.” Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 794–95 (1983).

McLaurin, a Yale-trained attorney, said he had little choice but to take action:

It’s one thing for legislative session to feel like a church service. It’s another thing for the Georgia House to allow blatantly unconstitutional establishment of religion.

Reporting on the story AJC notes:

The Supreme Court in 2014 ruled that legislative bodies can begin their meetings with prayer – even if that prayer favors a specific religion. But the 5-4 ruling also said if a prayer would go too far if “the course and practice over time” shows the prayers “denigrate nonbelievers or religious minorities, threaten damnation or preach conversion.”

Bottom line: Pastor Doyle Kelley, while acting as Chaplain for the Day in the Georgia State House chamber, claimed that 70 percent of the state’s residents are “on their way to Hell.”