The Family Research Council (FRC) is reporting that the high court rejected an appeal of a case brought by two North Carolina women who challenged the policy allowing prayers in Jesus' name to be said at county meetings. The women claimed the policy violated the Establishment Clause.
The FRC and others disagreed, citing the fact that everyone in town, regardless of their religion, was permitted to pray at county meetings. Until 2007, when the board eliminated prayers altogether, everyone from imams to rabbis had offered invocations.
"That didn't matter to the Fourth Circuit Court, who seemed to object to the religious make-up of the County," said FRC president Tony Perkins. "Since Forsyth is overwhelmingly Christian, a majority of the prayers were in Jesus' name. To combat that, the Appeals Court decided that local governments would have to start monitoring any 'excessive' mentions of Jesus."
By refusing to hear an appeal of the decision, the Supreme Court let stand the ruling in favor of the women, which means every state under the Fourth Circuit Court's jurisdiction - Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina - must now use the "Jesus-counting approach" in all public prayers. This will make it illegal for pastors in any government assembly to mention Jesus' name more than once or twice at the end of their prayers. In addition, they cannot make any statements about who Jesus is or what His death on the cross did for us.
"FRC and 15 members of the U.S. House of Representatives Prayer Caucus had weighed in with an amicus brief in hopes that the Court would step in and stop this wave of anti-religious censorship," Perkins said. "Unfortunately for people (like FRC staff!) who live in these states, our prayers will have to be answered before they can truly be offered."
The Supreme Court's refusal came as a surprise to religious leaders who thought the appeal had a reasonable chance of success, especially after last week's landmark decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC in which all nine justices agreed that the government does not have special power over churches.
Perkins lamented: "Unlike last week, when it told the government to keep its nose out of church business, the Court sent the exact opposite message this morning to anti-religion opportunists . . ."
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