Reacting to a recent federal district court decision invalidating the invocation practices in a nearby county (see
prior posting), Lincoln County, North Carolina, Board of Commissioners Chairman Carrol Mitchem told
WBTV News last week that only Christian prayers would be permitted at Council meetings. He said in part:
Other religions, or whatever, are in the minority. The U.S. was founded on Christianity. I don’t believe we need to be bowing to the minorities. The U.S. and the Constitution were founded on Christianity. This is what the majority of people believe in, and it’s what I'm standing up for....
I don’t need no Arab or Muslim or whoever telling me what to do or us here in the county what to do about praying. If they don’t like it, stay the hell away.... I ain’t gonna have no new religion or pray to Allah or nothing like that....
We’re fighting Muslims every day. I'm not saying they’re all bad. They believe in a different God than I do. If that’s what they want to do, that’s fine. But, they don't need to be telling us, as Christians, what we need to be doing. They don't need to be rubbing our faces in it.
Another Commission member, Alex Patton, disagreed with Mitchem saying that the country was founded on freedom of religion and complained that Mitchem had "just exposed our county to potential litigation, which was needless."
