City Council questioned on use of prayer

The Aiken City Council meeting on Monday night began a little differently - instead of the usual prayer said by a council member, a moment of silence was held.

Mayor Fred Cavanaugh explained to the audience that they were having a silent prayer that evening because of a "possible litigation," and after their regular meeting, they were going into an executive session to discuss it.

"We received a letter recently, and we are being challenged on our prayers and the content sometimes of those prayers," he said.

Cavanaugh was speaking of a seven-page letter received from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit group that focuses on violations of separation of church and state. The foundation is located in Madison, Wis., and has 16,000 supporters - more than 100 members are in South Carolina. Rebecca Markert, a staff attorney who composed the letter, said that, at this moment, the group is investigating three complaints around this state and 20 nationally.

The letter "urges" City Council to discontinue praying at the beginning of each meeting. The letter included a list of transcribed prayers from City Council meetings over the last year, pointing out that some were not all comprehensive to other religions. The letter addressed the concern that the name "Jesus" or the use of "in our Son's name" was said in several City Council prayers and that was not permissible by state law.

The letter further states "Such prayer creates acrimony, makes religious minorities feel like political outsiders in their own community and shows unconstitutional governmental preference not, just for religion over nonreligion, but Christianity over other faiths."

Markert stated in the letter that she was writing on behalf of a "concerned Aiken resident and taxpayer."

Markert said that an investigation of the City Council's prayers was prompted in April by the complaint, and the letter was sent to City Council on June 29.

"What we would like to see happen is that they do not pray at all," she said. "The best practice is to discontinue prayer or opt for a moment of silence."

Prayer is permissible under state law as long as it is not designated to a single religion by mentioning a deity - the usage of "God" is acceptable, according to City Manager Roger LeDuc.

City Council spoke with City Attorney Gary Smith on how to handle the situation during the executive session Monday night. They discussed the option of writing their prayers beforehand to avoid using a word that would be unacceptable under the law.

They will bring back the prayer at the next meeting - without mentioning any single deity to abide state law, LeDuc said.

Cavanaugh added that City Council has begun their meetings with prayer for years, and they feel that it is very important.

"It kind of pulls people together, and we can do that through prayer without offending anyone," Cavanaugh said.

The Aiken Standard contacted other government officials to see if they have recently or ever received a letter regarding prayer at their meetings.

Assistant County Administrator Brian Sanders said that to his recent knowledge, the County has received no such letter.

Willar Hightower leads the prayer before County Council meetings, and Chairman Ronnie Young said the District 8 Councilman knows the "restrictions" imposed by state law. However, Young was resolute that a prayer would always precede the governing body's actions.

"We'll continue with prayer," he said.

The Aiken County School Board attorney, Bill Burkhalter, is not aware of such a letter either. In his 33 years of service to the district, he doesn't recall ever getting any letter of complaint related to prayers at board meetings.

"With the fact that this has come up with the city, I would like to get more information," Burkhalter said, "then probably brief the board in a legal context. But probably, I wouldn't change anything at this point."

Typically, district-level administrators and board members rotate the presentation of a devotional before each School Board meeting. Sometimes, the devotional consists of an inspirational message, although Burkhalter acknowledged that on some occasions, the devotional may include a prayer that invokes the name of Jesus.

Although there have been exceptions, Burkhalter said most court cases give a School Board discretion as to devotional opportunities. However, there are none at schools or at school sports events. The distinction, he said, is that the board meetings are held by adults. In the school settings during class or at sports events, the presence of students or athletes is mandatory, Burkhalter said.

"The district policy for board meetings is fairly open-ended," he said. "Actually, it's more of a practice than a policy."

The issue of prayer at government meetings has brought legal action to another town in the state before, which is why the recent letter brought such concern to City Council. In a more extreme case, Great Falls council members faced a lawsuit in 2004 after a member of the Wiccan religion, Darla Kaye Wynne, asked them to use secular prayers during their meetings, and they apparently refused to do so.

Staff writers Haley Hughes and Rob Novit contributed to this article.

Contact Amy Banton at abanton@aikenstandard.com.