The Winston-Salem Journal weighs in at length on Forsyth County Commissioners’ vote to appeal a federal judge’s ruling banning prayer referencing a specific deity, focusing on Chairman Dave Plyler, who cast the swing vote:
As he voted for the appeal, the normally jovial Plyler looked as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. After the crowd stopped cheering, he cautioned that the board is still under Judge James Beaty’s order not to allow sectarian prayer, and a court decision that could lift the ban could be years away.
The push for the appeal, led by the Rev. Steve Corts, who is the chairman of the North Carolina Partnership for Religious Liberty, was well-organized. Corts, who says he’s no politician, out-maneuvered Plyler, who said last month that the county should never have gotten involved.
Corts said at a news conference a couple of weeks ago that Plyler should think long and hard about his decision on the appeal — implying that he should vote in favor of it — “because the political ramifications are going to be serious.” Plyler said yesterday he’s 72 and it wouldn’t it be the worst thing in the world if he lost in 2012.
So what was Plyler’s other choice —- aligning himself with fellow Commissioners Walter Marshall and Beaufort Bailey, who predictably made this a racial issue, even staging dramatic exit from the meeting escorted by sheriff’s deputies?
No surprise that the Journal’s being a bit melodramatic, too, saying “conservative Christians, have steered Plyler and the county down a risky and unpredictable road.” The way I see it, the county either wins or loses the appeal. It’s that simple, despite the efforts to make it much more complicated.
