Monday night the Sevier County, Tennessee Commissioners answered former ACLU attorney Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, by continuing their decades old habit of praying before their monthly Council session.

 

 

As I reported on March 11, Lynn is threatening a lawsuit if the County Commissioners don't stop saying The LORD's Prayer before their monthly session and remove a picture of the Ten Commandments where they meet.

 

Over 400 Sevier County residents and every major network TV station in nearby Knoxville attended the session. Two overflow rooms with TV monitors were also filled as well as the halls outside. The Session room held at least two hundred people with standing room only.

 

As the session began, the Mayor asked everyone to stand and recite the LORD's Prayer as he has done for 32 years.  All stood and did so with resounding firmness, holding hands in unison and clearly in approval of the practice.  As the only Oregonian in the room it was moving to see the stedfast approval of the Council's commitment not to be intimidated by a left wing group from Washington D.C.  I couldn't help but wonder if there was any such county in Oregon or Washington that had the courage and backbone to do the same.

 

The mayor then invited comments about the issue and after only one person responded, asked me to make the statement I had delivered to him earlier in the afternoon along with two powerful documents from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) citing long standing U.S. Supreme Court cases acknowledging the Council's right to pray before its sessions.

 

Andy Lowe, the General Manager of WGSN New Life 90.7, with whom I am consulting, prepared packets of the above material and gave them to the Mayor who in turn gave them to each Commissioner before the session.  

 

The response was overwhelming with the entire room standing in applause.  If there was any doubt amongst the commissioners - and I doubt if there was - it was clearly removed.  They acknowledged the value of the material we presented to them and the support of the community, and proceeded with the business of the evening.

 

The event was carried on the 11 PM Television Network News Stations in Knoxville, and again this morning and was the major news headline in The Mountain Press, Seviervile's daily newspaper.  

 

Click here for the Knoxville TV Coverage