Yesterday's Morgan County Citizen reported that the debate over legislative prayer has gotten ugly in Madison, Georgia. On Monday, just before calling City Council meeting to order, Mayor Tom DuPree asked Rev. Hoke Smith of Calvary Baptist Church to deliver an invocation. Immediately after the prayer, council member Michael Naples challenged the mayor's right to ask someone to deliver an opening prayer without prior approval by Council. He moved that the mayor stop the practice, or else that the mayor move the prayer outside the meeting building. That motion died for lack of a second. Naples immediately proposed a new motion to require that the mayor bear all litigation costs resulting from challenges to prayer at Council meetings. "I'll second that motion," said council member Barry Lurey. The motion eventually passed 3-2.
Later at the end of the meeting, the agenda called for public comment. At that time, Rev. Smith who was distressed over criticism of his opening prayer stood up to describe his reaction: "I thought I'd died and gone to hell, and the devil said, 'You're not going to pray down here'. Then I looked over to the side and I saw Barry Lurey, a Jew, down here in Hell. Looked and I seen a Catholic down here, and I had to shake myself."
