Court Upholds Sectarian Christian Prayers in Cobb County

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the practice of the Cobb County commission opening their meetings with sectarian Christian prayers. Technically, clergy of any religion are invited, but somehow in practice it's almost only Christians who end up delivering the invocation and they keep doing so with strongly sectarian messages. How is this constitutional? The Court's reasoning is not compelling and is not consistent with rulings in many other cases on this issue.

The ruling, written by 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Bill Pryor, concluded that courts should avoid parsing the content of prayers as long as they're not used to advance a particular religion or disparage another faith.

"Whether invocations of 'Lord of Lords' or 'the God of Abraham, Issac, and Mohammed' are 'sectarian' is best left to theologians, not courts of law," read the 42-page opinion.

In a dissent, U.S. District Judge Donald Middelbrooks said he, too, was uneasy at the prospect of the judiciary editing prayer. But he said allowing county commissions to sponsor prayer presents a "similar, although less direct, danger."

"When state sponsored prayer is a perfunctory and sterile exercise marking the beginning of a commission agenda, religion becomes the casualty," he wrote.

Source: Ledger-Inquirer

Cobb County commissioners proclaim that they don't want to "tinker" with prayers, but the fact is they already do so. They already instruct clergy about things they cannot do, like disparage other religions. I'm positive that a racist invocation would be denounced. So the choice isn't between interfering with the specifics of the message contained in the invocation and staying away entirely, but rather between what sorts of interference and standards they will apply and which they won't. Cobb County commissioners have made a deliberate decision not to forbid sectarian message but to forbid other messages, which means that the sectarian messages now come with official approval.

If the name "Bill Pryor" sounds familiar, it should. Pryor has really made a name for himself both in Alabama and nationally for his support of Christian Nationalism and the Christian Right's political agenda. He was a staunch defender of Roy Moore, the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who defied all law and precedent by installing a massive Ten Commandments monument in the state Judicial Building a few years ago.

In fact, it's arguable that he only won the post of Alabama Attorney General because of his unwavering support for Roy Moore — support which faltered when he forced to choose between upholding the law and upholding Moore's illegal behavior. A lot of Christian extremists turned against Pryor and never forgave him for that, but he retained the support of Christian conservatives in the government, which is probably why he was able to move on to his current position of power.

In 2007 when he was first nominated to the 11th Circuit Court, The Washington Post pointed out that "Mr. Pryor's nomination is controversial for the simple reason that he has never shied away from taking strident positions on matters of national moment: His record is replete with the sort of unblinking partisanship and ideological fervor that properly should raise questions about potential service on the bench." In the end, Democratic opposition to such a blatantly partisan hack forced Bush to make him a recess appointment — and this is the result.