Posted on 06/22/2012 9:23:32 AM PDT by Brown Deer
Joining a move toward nonsectarian prayer, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has asked its chaplains to stop including Jesus in their invocations at official department ceremonies.
The change, which applies to such events as police graduations, promotions and memorials, took place about a month ago, said Maj. John Diggs, who heads the department’s volunteer chaplain program. The goal: greater sensitivity to all religions practiced by the more than 2,000 police employees.
“This is not in any way an effort to demean anybody’s Christian beliefs,” Diggs said. “It’s to show respect for all the religious practices in our organization. CMPD is not anybody’s church.”
Terry Sartain, a police chaplain for seven years, said he got the news shortly before he was to give the invocation at a promotions ceremony last month. When he was told not to use Jesus in his prayer, he asked to be excused.
“Jesus is all I’ve got for a blessing,” said Sartain, pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship in west Charlotte. “Now I’ve got to find a balance. I want to serve the officers and their families. I don’t want to jam my beliefs down anybody’s throat. But I won’t deny Jesus.”
Diggs said Sartain won’t have to. If a chaplain is uncomfortable with a nonsectarian prayer at a particular event, Diggs said the department will respect that and find a replacement.
The new police policy represents the latest friction over the separation between church and state.
In January, the U.S. Supreme Court backed a lower court banning Forsyth County from opening its meetings with sectarian prayer. In protest, several government bodies across the state have openly ignored the ruling. The debate over Christian vs. nonsectarian prayers has also bubbled up in Minnesota, California and Virginia.
The U.S. military uses nonsectarian prayer. So do both houses of Congress. The N.C. legislature, however, often opens with Christian invocations, a practice that the American Civil Liberties Union has asked lawmakers to stop.
Diggs of the CMPD said the department’s officers and civilian employees represent many different faiths, from Christians to Muslims and Jews. The department has six chaplains, all Christian.
Sartain said he continues to give Christian prayers at private events that involve police, including a recent service celebrating law enforcement at First Baptist Church.
Several ministers in town supported the police move.
MPD “is telling its Christian chaplains to observe the same practices we would desire and respect from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu chaplains,” said the Rev. Dennis Foust of St. John’s Baptist Church of Charlotte.
“When we gather as citizens, we do not gather in the name of Jesus. Our prayers are offered to God with respect for the first clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
The Rev. Russ Dean of Park Road Baptist Church said he supports sensitivity in public prayer, particularly in using the name of Jesus.
“But how else do you expect Baptists to pray?” he said.
Dean said he yearns for the day when rabbis, imams or Baptist preachers can offer the opening prayer at a Panthers’ game in their own way.
“Until then,” Dean said, “we are really asking people of diverse faiths to become a part of some homogenized pseudo-faith, a public religion that is offensive to all because it attempts to offend none.” Staff Researcher Marion Paynter contributed.
Sounds like something satan would do.
Sue them for violation of civil rights.
Be very careful military Pastors - there are serious salvation issues here.
How about Moses? Or David? What about Mo?
allah and Jehovah names are also banned, eh?
these pC jerkoffs should tell muslims to pray without using the name allah... double dare them
I wonder how many of those who signed the Mecklenburg Resolution were muslims?
Can’t mention the name Jesus in a prayer?
Pretty soon chaplians won’t be able to even mention Jesus at all. And if a chaplain dares to take a Biblical stance on homosexuality?
They’ll be kicked out or court martialed.
How about Christ? As in “though Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Why then when muslims pray they are told not to use the word “Allah” when referring to their god? Allah is the name of their god. Yet they can pray using that specific name.
I am so sick of this. It is time to defy these assinine orders and if they fire them, they ought to sue. Trying to be this kind of “respectful” is not allowing the free exercise of religion of the Christian, as they cannot even appeal to our Lord in His proper name. And they ought to sue the damn pants off the department and make an example of them so that all the other places thinking about restricting the exercise of a CHRISTIAN PASTOR NOT TO PRAY IN HIS GOD’S NAME, will not want ot have a lawsuit and lose millions of dollars for wrongful termination and a person’s freedom of religion.
It is time we have to take the gloves off and fight this PC bullsh1t with all our strength. These people are passive aggressively tromping over our rights of freedom of religion. If a Christian Pastor can’t use the name of His God in a prayer, a lawsuit and damages are required. And make it big to scare anyone else from attempting this.
The potential for some to be offended does not allow a business to not allow a person’s freedom of religion, especially when that person is employed for their religious duties. You can be a pastor and pray, just don’t mention the name of your God. No, that’s over the line. These people won’t change unless they lose big in court.
This has one solution and it is 100% up to people of faith to enact it.
The nanosecond that a muslim invokes Allah or whatever other invokes their deity at any governmental function in an official capacity, get up, walk out and file multiple lawsuits. Claim violation of ‘church and state’ and civil rights laws, along with PTSD, pain, suffering et all.
Our refusal to use the tools in the tool box results in Jesus being banned while Allah tides high.
Your choice folks. Are you a Christian or a Dhimmi?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/okla-police-captain-transfered-for-refusing-to-attend-muslim-event/
sadly, “we” are beyond this
muslim = OK
Christian = might hurt somebody’s feelings
No “we” aren’t, because enough people haven’t done anything but sit on their hands when confronted personally with it. It has gotten nowhere near the supreme court.
But if they want to say “Allah akbar”, that would be just fine.
Wow! Gives new meaning to the Great Commission. Shows this pastor really believes in the life changing properties of Christ-NOT!
Modern Prayer:
Oh, to that wonderful notion of belief, we throw these
affirmations of that uneluctable thing we call faith,
allow these graduates to not cease physically during their
work, allow their families to grow/reproduce/go to another
dimension, without any undesired interference.
We affirm that these men/women/mosaic phenotypes carry out
the desires of our own laws, until those laws are changed
due to bribes, political considerations, dysfunctional
psychosocial reason, and lies.
To that great notion, we offer the highest cogitations of
our infinite minds (soon to be dust).
So be it. So be it.
So beat it, beat it, beat it.*
*To add some “relevancy” to the “prayer” the last sentence
has to be sung to the tune of Michael Jacksons song of the
same name.
Hummmmm. How did Peter and John respond when the leaders of the Sanhedrin ordered them not to speak in Jesus’ name?
I would pray how I want to pray.
The State is not permitted to dictate prayers to Americans and Christians are not permitted to deny Jesus upon the orders of anti-Christs, even if a commie judge seys so.
A prayer is not a ceremonial thing. Its a prayer. If you ask me to pray, you get what you get. You asked me to talk to God on your behalf, you don’t get to tell me how to do it.
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