Fredericksburg.com - Fredericksburg ruling cited in Chesapeake prayer fight|Emily Battle

City Beat

By Emily Battle

Fredericksburg ruling cited in Chesapeake prayer fight

Aug. 5, 2009 2:58 pm

The prayers that introduce local government meetings are at issue again, this time in Chesapeake, where a battle is brewing among a number of nonprofit special-interest groups.

Back in June, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Chesapeake City Council accusing it of straying from its nonsectarian prayer policy by allowing opening prayers that included references to "the Father, the Son and the blessed Holy Spirit." This group asked Chesapeake to stop allowing these prayers.

Then earlier this week, the Alliance Defense Fund and the Family Foundation wrote their own letter to Chesapeake. They argued that it is unconstitutional to tell somebody how to pray. That is the same argument that was rejected by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Hashmel Turner's prayer case here.

Today, the ACLU wrote its own letter, citing the Fredericksburg case and telling Chesapeake its prayers must be nonsectarian. Rather than ask governments to get into the business of parsing every word of an individual's prayer, the ACLU offered a different solution:

The most straightforward solution to this conundrum is simply not to have official, government prayers. Let private citizens pray as they wish. Let the government stay out of it.

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