Sectarian council prayers struck down in South Carolina.

A federal judge in late August ordered a South Carolina town council to discontinue pre-meeting prayers that include references to Jesus Christ or other deities associated with specific faiths.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina, representing Darla Kay Wynne, a Great Falls resident and assistant national director of a group called Witches Against Religious Discrimination, sued the Great Falls mayor and town council for routinely opening council meetings with prayers invoking Jesus Christ. Typically, council member John Broom would recite the same prayer for guidance, which ends "in Christ's name."

Wynne objected to the invocation practice at a meeting in late 2000, but was told by the mayor that the council had always opened its meetings with that type of prayer and would not stop.

Great Falls Mayor H.C. "Speedy" Starnes Jr. testified before U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie that the majority of people in Great Falls are Christian. Unless someone from a different religion were elected, he said, the council would probably continue to follow a "Judeo-Christian format."

Attorneys for the Great Falls officials also argued that one reference to Christ in a town council prayer does not amount to advancing or advocating a specific religion. They also argued the prayers are primarily for council members and asserted that Great Falls residents are not compelled to participate.

Currie rejected those arguments, noting that a majority of the council's opening prayers have invoked Christ's name and that community religious leaders called on the council to continue its tradition of using "Christian" prayer to open meetings. The council also rejected Wynne's request that the prayer refer in general terms to a deity or that the prayers rotate references to different deities, Currie wrote. Currie concluded there was ample evidence that the "Town Council's prayer does not have a secular purpose but, instead, proselytizes or advances a particular faith or belief--in this case, Christianity."

Great Falls Town Attorney Brian Gibbons announced in early September that the town would appeal Currie's ruling in Wynne v. Town of Great Falls to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.