NC county mulls ending prayer tradition deemed ‘blatantly unconstitutional’
A North Carolina county that garnered controversy over allowing elected officials to give opening prayers at their official meetings might shift to inviting clergy to give invocations instead.
The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners was recently the subject of a complaint letter from a church-state watchdog group because its board members give the opening prayer at official meetings.
Frankie Waters, chairman for the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners, told The Christian Post on Thursday that the practice was not a “written policy” but rather a “tradition.”
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“Only elected commissioners led prayer and the pledge. The audience was asked to stand for both,” Waters explained, adding that they were considering a shift toward having clergy give the opening prayer instead.
According to Waters, for their Monday night meeting, the board “invited a local pastor to have a prayer before the meeting was called to order.”
“We invited other religious leaders to call the board's clerk if they would like to be placed on a list for prayer at future meetings,” he added.
Last month, Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent a letter to Waters and other commissioners, objecting to their prayer practice.
Ian Smith, a staff attorney with Americans United, told the county leadership that he believed their practice of having commissioners give the prayers was “blatantly unconstitutional.”
“The Board of Commissioners exists to represent all citizens of Beaufort County, regardless of faith or belief,” wrote Smith in the letter, a copy of which was emailed to CP by Americans United.
“The practice of county officials composing and reciting official prayers sends the message that nonbelievers and adherents of faiths that do not wish to participate in the Board’s prayers are not accepted members of the community and pressuring the audience to stand for the prayer coerces them to participate in the Board’s religious activities.”
Smith further argued that the board should replace its invocation tradition with a moment of silence or a prayer policy that is "compatible" with legal precedent.
“If the Board insists on opening its meetings with an invocation, it should adopt a policy that turns the delivery of invocations over to private citizens who are selected based on neutral criteria that do not discriminate against minority faiths or nonbelievers,” Smith continued.
“And either way, the Board must stop asking the audience to stand or otherwise participate in the prayer.”
For his part, Waters did not believe that the earlier practice of having a commissioner give the opening prayer and have everyone stand was a violation of the First Amendment.
“We do not believe that we were in violation of church and state separation,” he said, noting that the only complaint he could recall was an email sent last week from someone living in Ohio.
“I have been a commissioner for the last eight years and no local citizen or group has objected either by public comment in a meeting or by written notice.”
