On Monday, the Transylvania County, North Carolina, Board of County Commissioners-- responding to a challenge by the ACLU-- unanimously agreed to continue to open board meetings with a prayer. It adopted a 5-page "model policy" drafted by the Alliance Defense Fund. (ADF Release). The Model Policy sets out the legal rationale for the resolution and then calls for an opening prayer (not listed as an agenda item for the meeting) to be offered voluntarily on a rotating basis by Board members. No guidelines on prayer content will be issued. Each Board member may pray according to the dictates of his or her own conscience. Presumably this permits prayers to contain sectarian references. However "the Board shall request by the language of this policy that no prayer should proselytize or advance any faith, or disparage the religious faith or non-religious views of others."
Finally, the resolution provides that it "shall not be ... construed ... to affiliate the Board with, nor express the Board’s preference for, any faith or religious denomination. Rather, this policy is intended to ... express the Board’s respect for the diversity of religious denominations and faiths represented and practiced among the citizens of the County..."
