In Jesus' name, you can't pray.
The Culpeper County Ministerial Association isn't bowing down to that "suggestion" from the Culpeper Town Council. The group says it may challenge an Aug. 11 memo from Town Attorney Robert W. Bendall asking ministers not to refer to "Jesus, Christ or any variations of those names" while praying at the opening of council meetings.
The memo stems from a U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision July 22 ruling that a Great Falls, S.C., legislative prayer violated the First Amendment clause prohibiting the establishment of a state religion.
The ruling sparked a similar controversy earlier this year in Fredericksburg, where Councilman Hashmel Turner stopped leading prayers at meetings rather than omit the name of Christ.
Bendall and Culpeper Mayor Pranas Rimeikis were invited to appear before the Ministerial Association at its regular monthly meeting yesterday to clarify the town's position.
Bendall told the group it was "never my intention to tell you how to pray," but he suggested that those who open council meetings with prayer "pray to a neutral god" in the future.
"There is no problem with 'Almighty God,' but we do not want to disparage one faith or sect over another," said Bendall, who called himself "just a messenger."
"Praying to a generic god denies me the right to speak to my God," the Rev. Marshall Braylo, pastor of the Jeffersonton Baptist Church, replied.
"We're not choosing a golf course here," said the Rev. Mark Jarvis, former pastor of Open Door Baptist Church. "We're talking about our relationship with the true God through the Lord Jesus Christ."
"There are many out there who don't believe your god is the true god," the town attorney countered. He added that even leading the audience in the Lord's Prayer is legally "problematic."
The Rev. Ted Fuson, pastor of Culpeper Baptist Church, said that while he didn't agree with the premise, he understood the town's position and could offer a generic prayer.
"[A town council meeting] is not a worship service," he said.
But others in attendance questioned the government's right to set guidelines on prayer.
Hagazi Kebede, an official from the Persecution Project Foundation, said he had lived under communism in Ethiopia and suggested the recent court decision oversteps the Constitution.
"Once you start telling people what they should pray, you're taking their liberty out," he said. "A Christian should be offended [by this]. If they are not offended, they are not a Christian."
Attorney Mike Sharman called the town's position "prior restraint" and an expression of "hostility to Christianity." Although the 4th Circuit includes Virginia, he said none of the cases cited in the town's memo is applicable in the commonwealth.
"Nobody has ever ruled against what you are doing here right now," Sharman said. "[Religious freedoms] were won by inches. You're giving up miles."
Both Bendall and Rimeikis contend that the memo was merely a "suggestion." But it is written in the imperative: urging the ministers to "avoid references to Jesus, Christ" and "use neutral" references instead.
The Ministerial Association--and only volunteers from that Christian group--has customarily provided prayer at council meetings. Asked if a Satanist who volunteered would be allowed to pray at a council meeting, Rimeikis said he didn't know.
He also said he did not know what would happen if a Culpeper minister deliberately uses either "Jesus" or "Christ" to test the town's resolve.
One minister suggested that might be a possibility, asking, "Is this a point where we have to take a stand?" The association could make a decision on how it will respond as early as next month.
Randy Orndorff, who recently became pastor at Culpeper United Methodist Church, said the directive hit him in the face when he showed up to pray at a recent Town Council meeting.
"An attorney handed me [a memo concerning the Great Falls decision] and asked, 'Are you aware of this?' He told me I shouldn't use 'Jesus' in my prayer."
Being a new minister in town and getting hit with the memo just minutes prior to being called on to pray, Orndorff said he had to make a quick and unpleasant decision.
"I changed my prayer after they handed me the memo," he told the Ministerial Association. "I don't think I'd do that again."
To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON: DJohn40330@aol.com