Last week, a federal court ruled it was un-Constitutional for North Carolina county commissioners to mention Jesus in their public invocations. The logic is that forbidding citizens who pray in the name of Jesus from doing so does not endorse a particular faith. It just condemns one particular faith. Furthermore, it “does not infringe on the private rights of citizens to free speech or free exercise of religion.” That is, citizens may only say and pray as they please in their own closets.
An article in the Smoky Mountain News discusses the local impact. Following a decision of the Haywood County Commissioners to honor the court more than the Constitution, Christian Kevin Ensley will no longer offer prayers. He was not comfortable overriding the terms and conditions his God placed on prayer. Fearing God more than Alex Cury of the ACLU, the Macon County Commissioners decided to practice civil disobedience.
“I’m just not a very politically correct guy,” said [Commissioner Jim] Davis. “We can’t guarantee that people aren’t going to be offended. You have a right to be offended, and I have a right to not be bothered by that.”
Technically, Jesus was outlawed in 2004, and the Forsyth decision only upholds the former ruling. The decision cites from case law the following muffler put on the free exercise of conscience:
When we gather as Americans, we do not abandon all expressions of religious faith. Instead, our expressions evoke common and inclusive themes and forswear . . . the forbidding character of sectarian invocations.
In other words, it is OK to pray, as long as one is going through hypocritical gyrations and not actually trying to get in touch with his Higher Power.
Recently, it was decided post-theist Cecil Bothwell could serve on Asheville City Council because the words in the North Carolina constitution requiring holders of public office to believe in God sort of mistakenly landed on the page. Atheists far and wide celebrated his refusal to mention God in his swearing-in.
Atheists should be allowed to speak their conscience, but the table-turning Jesus would have issues with the ACLU wanting Christians (who just happen to be in the majority) to have to try to speak an atheists’ conscience.
Thomas Jefferson, who, if I’m not mistaken, played a huge part in writing the rules by which we Americans are supposed to abide, said the following:
Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could never submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. . . . Constraint may make him worse by making him a hypocrite, but it will never make him a truer man. It may fix him obstinately in his errors, but will not cure them. Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error.
