'Jesus Christ' not welcome at public meetings

Any reference to "Jesus Christ" during a prayer at a government meeting is "unconstitutional."

That's the opinion of the Jewish defense group the Anti Defamation League which is urging a Florida community to adopt a policy banning sectarian prayers making reference to any specific deities.

"If invocations are done, they have to be, according to (a 1983) Supreme Court decision, such that they do not advance any particular faith or belief," ADL spokesman Andrew Rosenkranz told the Palm Beach Post. "The reason being, you try and make as many people included as possible so that nobody feels that they're being left out of any particular prayer."

The New York-based ADL is focusing its attention on Wellington, Fla., where the issue of inclusiveness came up at the suggestion of a councilmember last year.

Local clergy have been permitted to recite prayers at the start of village meetings, and some reportedly mention Jesus Christ by name.

Rosenkranz wrote Mayor Tom Wenham, saying the allowing of Jesus' name "sends a clear message of exclusion to citizens not of that faith."

Presbyterian minister Tim Christenson recently changed his prayers at meetings to remove the name of Jesus, first out of respect for other faiths, and later by request of the mayor. The Post reports Christenson has since reversed his position and will once again utter Christ's name during his invocations.

Despite the objections of the ADL, the Florida-based Liberty Counsel says it would be unconstitutional to have a policy restricting prayers.

"Essentially what they're (the ADL) wanting is for the government to get out a censor pen and determine what's sectarian and what's not," Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel told the paper. "He's wanting to require them be a theological, doctrinal board of review."

"The city council members are not theologians," he added. "They're politicians."

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