Borough Settles Lawsuit Challenging Its Use of Sectarian Invocations

Subject to a final Borough Council vote next week that is expected to pass, Point Beach, New Jersey has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed against it by the ACLU challenging its practice of opening meetings with a prayer that was generally Christian in nature. (See prior posting.) At one time, the borough opened meetings with the Lord's Prayer. After an initial lawsuit was filed, it moved to prayers by individual council members reflecting their own beliefs.  But that still resulted in Christian prayer and a new suit was brought. The settlement of that suit follows a decision by Council now to open its meetings only with prayers that do not use language specific to any religion. Point Pleasant Patch reports on these developments.