Forsyth County NC Adopts New Invocation Policy In Face Of Litigation

The Forsyth County, North Carolina, Board of Commissioners Monday night voted 4-3 to approve a new policy that calls for inviting local clergy and religious leaders who are listed in the Yellow Pages to deliver invocations at Board meetings. They would be assigned on a "first-come, first-served basis" according to the report in today's Winston-Salem Journal. The policy language was recommended by the Alliance Defense Fund. The policy permits the invited clergy to deliver sectarian prayers. It provides: "Neither the board nor the clerk shall engage in any prior inquiry, review of, or involvement in, the content of any prayer to be offered by an invocational speaker." The vote comes in response to a lawsuit filed in March by the ACLU and Americans United challenging the county's unwritten policy that permitted sectarian invocations. The final Board vote on the new policy split along party lines. Opposing the new policy, Democrat Walter Marshall said: "I think religion has been prostituted. I have already felt the hate of people and what religion can do."