Christians rally against ban on praying 'in Jesus' name'

State police chaplains in Virginia who have been banned from praying "in Jesus' name" have gained the support of more than 1,000 people who gathered for a rally outside the mansion of Gov. Timothy Kaine, who has declared he can pray without mentioning Jesus.

The issue is a newly imposed rule for Virginia State Troopers who serve as chaplains for various needs. State officials, citing an appeals court ruling from ex-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor that praying "in Jesus' name" can be censored by the government, ordered their troopers not to mention Jesus.

However, Congress has authorized military chaplains to pray as their conscience dictates, and another appeals court has found that praying "in Jesus' name" is constitutional.

U.S. Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who was removed from the military over the issue of praying "in Jesus' name," organized the Prayer Rally for Persecuted Police Chaplains over the weekend in Richmond.

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Six Virginia State Police chaplains resigned their chaplain posts because of the new restrictions on their prayers, and several were in attendance.

Trooper Rex Carter said the government simply shouldn't be in the business of telling people how to pray.

Virginia rally for chaplains who want to pray "in Jesus' name."

Trooper Mike Honaker was the first of the six chaplains to resign when he heard of the state restriction.

"If they throw Jesus out of this program, they might as well throw me out too," he told supporters.

Plans were announced by state Sen. Steve Martin and Delegate Bill Carrico to introduce legislation in January to enforce the Virginia Constitution, which protects citizens' "Christian" expression of religion.

Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the Liberty University School of Law, said he would ensure the chaplains were represented in court if the need arose.

"I wept with joy as the presence of God fell upon the crowd, and many others told me they wept too. Jesus promised wherever two or three are gathered in His name, he would dwell in their midst, and sure enough, He was present powerfully today, as hundreds of people took a stand for Jesus' name," Klingenschmitt told WND.

The opinion raising concerns for Virginia officials came from O'Connor in a dispute involving the city of Fredericksburg, where Hashmel Turner is a member of the town council.

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Turner was part of a rotation of council members who took turns bringing a prayer at the council meetings. He ended his prayers "in Jesus' name."

Turner's prayer, however, offended a listener, who prompted the involvement of several activist groups that threatened a lawsuit if the elected Christian council member continued to be allowed to mention Jesus' name.

The city then adopted a non-sectarian prayer requirement, imposing a ban on any reference to Jesus.

"Turner was not forced to offer a prayer that violated his deeply-held religious beliefs. Instead he was given a chance to pray on behalf of the government," O'Connor wrote.

Not so, said Klingenschmitt.

"Actually he was directly forced to conform or face the punishment of exclusion," he said. "Actually he was denied the change to pray on behalf of that government."

John Whitehead, the founder and chief of the Rutherford Institute, is working on the Turner case, which has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He told WND at the time the appeals court arguments were made that freedoms of speech and religion are burdened in the U.S. today with a politically correct atmosphere that endorses or at least allows any sort of religious acknowledgement, except for Christians.

O'Connor wrote: "The restriction that prayers be nonsectarian in nature is designed to make the prayers accessible to people who come from a variety of backgrounds, not to exclude or disparage a particular faith."

Klingenschmitt's statement said: "Ironically, she admitted Turner was excluded from participating solely because of the Christian content of his prayer."

As WND reported, however, another appeals court has disagreed with O'Connor's conclusions in her 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals writings.

The judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have used a case from Cobb County, Ga., to proclaim that praying "in Jesus' name" is acceptable at county board meetings when other constitutional provisions are followed.

Similar to Turner's case, the 11th Circuit ruling involved prayers offered by local leaders on a rotating basis.

"We would not know where to begin to demarcate the boundary between sectarian and nonsectarian expressions and the taxpayers [who brought the case] have been opaque in explaining that standard," the court said. "Even the individual taxpayers cannot agree on which expressions are 'sectarian.'"

The opinion said representatives of Christianity, Islam, Unitarian Universalism and Judaism have been represented.

"The prayers have included references to 'Jesus,' 'Allah,' 'God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,' 'Muhammad,' and 'Heavenly Father,'" the court said.

Those who objected, the court said, "argue that the Establishment Clause permits only nonsectarian prayers … but we disagree."

The ruling said precedent makes it clear that "the content of the prayer is not of concern to judges where … there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief."

"Whether invocations of 'Lord of Lords' or 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Mohammed' are 'sectarian' is best left to theologians, not courts of law," the court said.

While Klingenschmitt was discharged from the U.S. Navy in a dispute with his commander over praying in uniform "in Jesus' name," he later won a victory in Congress that now allows other chaplains to pray as their conscience dictates.

His personal case seeking reinstatement remains pending.