Ruling silences public prayer in La Grange again

LA GRANGE — Kinston attorney George Jenkins, Jr. struggled for hours Monday to draft an invocation for the La Grange Town Council that satisfied a federal court ruling banning Jesus Christ from pre-meeting prayers.

The more Jenkins struggled, the more his prayers slanted towards his Presbyterian faith, which — as the attorney who provides legal counsel to town officials in La Grange — worried him greatly.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a North Carolina county board’s appeal of a ruling that their invocations infringed upon U.S. citizens’ First Amendment right to pray as they pleased.

The refusal made the verdict reached in the federal Court of Appeals final, outlawing all religious figures — such as Allah, Buddha, God and Jesus — from public prayer in the U.S.

Prayer in Forsyth County — where the attack on community blessings first began in 2007 — was silenced.

Prayer in La Grange — decided in a unanimous vote by the town council on Monday — was silenced.

And many more governing bodies may soon be next.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which won about $200,000 in legal fees in a lawsuit filed against the Forsyth County Commissioners, plans to warn other North Carolina counties not to allow religion-specific prayers.

Jones County Commissioners have already received a letter, said board member Sandra Ipock Riggs.

“It’s not that we are flippant politicians,” Councilman Larry Gladney said of the La Grange Town Council, who in November — after a two-year sabbatical from prayer — reinstated the board’s 140-year tradition of convening meetings with an invocation.

“We have no choice,” Gladney said. “We are bound to follow the law as we swore to uphold the constitution when we took office.”

Special time

Typically, during the La Grange Town Council’s prayers, some members bow their heads, fold their hands and pray; others simply sit quietly.

On Monday, after Jenkins crafted a two-sentence prayer asking the “Almighty One” for guidance and inspiration, all had mixed emotions.

Church and state had collided in decision that pinned the board’s religious beliefs against the flexibility of the town’s budget to fight lengthy legal battles. 

What if one of the council members, many of whom worship as Protestants, prayed “in the name of Jesus” or “thanked God for allowing His son to forgive us of our sins,” as they are accustomed to doing, La Grange Town Manager John Craft asked.

“The way in which we pray, in my opinion, would not pass muster in court,” Jenkins said to the board in advising them to have a moment of silence in lieu of an invocation. “I find it to be an elegant solution where people can pray as they see fit.”

Although Councilman Clifton Harrison said he did not like the idea of “someone telling him how to pray,” he reluctantly voted in favor of a silent prayer as he could not live with a “canned prayer,” like the one drafted by Jenkins.

Councilman David Holmes agreed.

“I don’t want to pray a fake prayer,” Holmes said. “I want to pray to Jesus. That’s how I was raised — a Free Will Baptist who read the King James Bible.”

Councilman Albert Gray, who said he won a second bid for the council in November largely based off his faith, said he prays each day — both in silence and out loud — for God to provide him wisdom and help him be open to views that might differ from his own.

“It’s not what a man says that makes a prayer,” Gray said. “It’s what’s in his heart.”

Wesley Brown can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wbrown@freedomenc.com. Follow him on Twitter @KinstonCrimeSpy.