Secular Victory: A federal court rules “coercive” Christian prayers at public meetings in a North Carolina county are unconstitutional.

Last week a federal judge ruled that in North Carolina, the Rowan County Board of Commissioners violated the U.S. Constitution by adopting what the ACLU calls a “coercive prayer practice.”

The federal court ruled that the Rowan County Board of Commissioners violated the Constitution when they coerced public participation in prayers that overwhelmingly advanced beliefs specific to one religion – Christianity.

The ACLU reports that between 2007 and 2013, more than 97 percent of the prayers delivered by commissioners before public meetings were explicitly Christian prayers.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge James Beaty of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina wrote:

When plaintiffs wish to advocate for local issues in front of the board, they should not be faced with the choice between staying seated and unobservant, or acquiescing to the prayer practice of the board… The board’s practice fails to be nondiscriminatory, entangles government with religion, and over time, establishes a pattern of prayers that tends to advance the Christian faith of the elected Commissioners at the expense of any religious affiliation unrepresented by the majority.

Chris Brook, legal director for the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, said:

Residents attending public meetings should not have to choose between participating in a religious exercise led by a government official and singling themselves out as a religious minority. The message of today’s decision is clear: Rowan County’s prayer practice unconstitutionally discriminated against many of its residents, alienating many who simply wanted to play a role in local decision-making.

An important note: the federal court ruling by Judge Beaty will not overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Greece v. Galloway, a decision in which the court decided that the Town of Greece, New York, may permit volunteer chaplains to open each legislative session with a prayer, and that the town’s practice of beginning legislative sessions with prayers does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Explaining the difference between Greece v. Galloway and the case concerning Rowan County, Judge Beaty wrote:

While an all-comers policy is not necessarily required, a nondiscriminatory one is. When all faiths but those of the five elected Commissioners are excluded, the policy inherently discriminates and disfavors religious minorities.

The travesty and injustice of “coercive” Christian prayers at the opening of every Rowan County Board of Commissioners public meeting will now hopefully come to an end. However, other North Carolina officials in other countries have promised to make sure that only Christian prayers will be heard at their county meetings.

After hearing about the Rowan County decision, neighboring Lincoln County Board of Commissioners chairman Carrol Mitchem said that only Christian prayers will be allowed at his county meetings, while making the absurd if predictable claim that the “U.S. was founded on Christianity.”

Expressing anger at the federal court ruling ordering Rowan County commissioners to stop opening meetings with sectarian Christian prayers, Mitchem said:

The U.S. was founded on Christianity. I don’t believe we need to be bowing to the minorities. The U.S. and the Constitution were founded on Christianity. This is what the majority of people believe in, and it’s what I’m standing up for. Changing rules on the way the United States was founded, Constitution was founded (I don’t like). I don’t need no Arab or Muslim or whoever telling me what to do or us here in the county what to do about praying. If they don’t like it, stay the hell away.

The struggle continues…

(H/T Americans United For Separation of Church and State)