Mayor Waters, Commissioners:

Thank you for allowing me to speak to you regarding this very important issue.

Three days after our Founders established the final language of the Bill of Rights, they authorized opening prayers in Congress by paid chaplains.  Noting this fact, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burger in Marsh v. Chambers in 1983 wrote, "To invoke divine guidance on a public body. . .  is not. . . an establishment of religion or a step toward establishment; it is simply a tolerable acknowledgement of beliefs widely held among the people of this country."

One year after Marsh was decided, Justice Sandra Day O'Conner wrote in Lynch v. Donnelly, that government acknowledgements of religion serve. . . the legitimate secular purposes of solemnizing public occasions. . . and encouraging the recognition of what is worthy of appreciation in society."

Thirty years before Marsh, Justice William O. Douglas, in Zorach v. Clauson, observed, "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. . . When the state encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities by adjusting the schedule of public events to sectarian needs, it follows the best of our traditions.  For it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs."

In his Farewell Address on September 19, 1796, President George Washington said, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable support. . .The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them.  A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity."

There is simply no question that a legislative body may open its sessions with an invocation.  Public prayer has been an essential part of our heritage since the time of this nation's founding. Our Constitution has always protected the activity, and the Supreme Court has upheld it.

The documents we have provided you from the Alliance Defense Fund are replete with court cases supporting invocations prior to public meetings and provide every assurance of the rightness of your tradition.

We cannot separate the Christian faith of our Founders from sound public policy.  It is the bedrock foundation of all that is good in America and should not, indeed, cannot be excluded from the public square, public debate, nor the deliberations of this body.

We at WGSN and the Christian Community in Sevier County pray that you will take a firm stand against these unwarranted threats to our freedom of speech and religious expression.

WGSN and the Alliance Defense Fund are prepared to stand with you in this fight and pray that you will choose to entrust the legal battle - if there is one - to an experienced legal organization that successfully deals with these issues across the nation.

Respectfully,

David Crowe