The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop a suburban Atlanta county from opening its meetings with prayers that mention Jesus or other sectarian references, claiming the invocations represent government favoritism of Christianity.
The three-judge panel of the court, however, was immediately skeptical of how the ACLU expected prayers to be crafted without appearing to favour one religion over another.
"What about King of Kings?" Judge Bill Pryor asked ACLU lawyer Daniel Mach in the case's hearing ."Is that sectarian? What about Lord of Lords?" Pryor persisted, interrupting the ACLU lawyer's arguments. "The God of Abraham? What about the God of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus?"
Liberty Legal Institute Chief Counsel Kelly Shackleford was offended about the ACLU asking clergy to pray without invoking religious messages.
"I think this is really where you pull the cover off and see what you're really looking at with the ACLU," Shackelford told OneNewsNow. "This is religious bigotry; it's anti-free speech; it's everything that they're supposed to be against.
"The government really has no business telling anybody how they should or should not pray," Shackelford said. "And the fact that the ACLU is trying to use the power of government to tell people how to pray is just an incredible invasion of freedom, and it shows that they are not about freedom and liberty at all. They're about oppression and trying to stamp out religious speech."
