ACLU threat causes SC council to drop prayer

Ed Thomas
OneNewsNow.com

A spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund says the ACLU's now-standard strategy of demanding that opening prayers at government meetings be stopped has worked in Oconee County, South Carolina, as county council members voted Tuesday to drop their invocation and adopt a moment of silence.

Local officials of the Oconee County Council in South Carolina decided Tuesday afternoon to adopt a moment of silence at the start of their government meetings and no longer open with prayer. The decision was made despite a proposed policy from the Alliance Defense Fund that it assured would legally allow the invocations to continue by allowing prayer from spokesmen of any community religions.

ADF senior counsel Gary McCaleb says the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had already used what he described as its now-standard tactic, and threatened a lawsuit if the Council did not stop opening its meetings with prayer. The Oconee Ministerial Association had asked the legal coalition for its help for the county.

"ADF stepped in and tried to offer a solid alternative, which unfortunately the county backed down on and then instead adopted a moment of silence," McCaleb explains.

The attorney called the Oconee Council's choice unfortunate, because the ACLU was once again able to silence the First Amendment by employing what he called the classic fear, intimidation, and disinformation tactics that are being used in demand letters to towns and cities across the country. "It's kind of a sad situation, both from the standpoint of here you have them coming in and getting rid of free speech; and the other is that this is a classic 'victory without a fight' for the ACLU."

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