(CNN) – A city in West Virginia has replaced the presentation of a prayer prior to city council meetings with a generalized, secular invocation following receipt of a complaint from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). FFRF had sent a letter to Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott on Jan. 9 after being informed by a local resident that the prayers presented at city council meetings were repeatedly and consistently Christian.
“This practice represents an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity,” the correspondence read. “The council members lead prayers that are invariably Christian, often include sectarian references, and ignore vocal challenges by members of the community.”
FFRF pointed to the 2017 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Lund v. Rowan County, in which an en banc panel of judges ruled 10-5 that while county commissioners in North Carolina may present prayers before public meetings, they cannot be exclusively Christian. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the case. FULL REPORT
