KINGWOOD — The Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation (CPCF) has joined the discussion on Preston County Commission’s participation in the National Day of Prayer.
In December, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) wrote the commission, criticizing what it referred to as its “organization and promotion” of the 2019 event by posting on its website: “Please join the Preston County Commissioners on the courthouse lawn at noon on Thursday, May 2, 2019, to celebrate the National Day of Prayer.”
The event has been held on the courthouse lawn for several years. The lawn is also available to other groups by applying to the commission. Main Street Kingwood and the Kingwood Volunteer Fire Department, for example, have used it.
In 2019, National Day of Prayer organizers did not complete the paperwork. Then Commission President Dave Price said the forms must be completed this year and he assumed it was an oversight in 2019.
The CPCF wrote in a Jan. 20 letter to the county that, while it hadn’t seen the other group’s letter, it assumed, “that FFRF has complained that Preston County has been using its website to advertise the National Day of Prayer event, that certain elected officials have appeared at the event in an official capacity and that the city has been holding the event in a public forum (courthouse lawn).”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation letter does not mention any county officials participating but said “a number of uniformed Morgantown Police Department officers participated.”
The Dominion Post reported after the event that one Morgantown officer, who was in uniform and also pastors a Preston County church, addressed the group.
The FFRP asked the Preston Commission to “drop its support for this divisive event and refrain from holding future National Day of Prayer events.”
FFRP has a right to speak on its “members’ non-belief, just like we have a right to speak on behalf of our belief,” wrote Lea Carawan, executive director of the CPCF.
The people of Preston County “will not be compelled against their will to go to the National Day of Prayer event, nor were any FFRF members compelled to go against their will,” Carawan wrote.
Carawan noted, as Price did at the January meeting, that separation of church and state is not specifically listed in the U.S. Constitution, but individual freedom to worship is.
The FFRF wrote that the National Day of Prayer divides different religions because it is “exclusive to Christians.”
The Congressional Caucus responded that, “FFRP’s attempt to force prayer out of the public arena is offensive to those who believe in the power of prayer and is, frankly, divisive. Declaring prayer ‘out of bounds’ for civil discourse is intolerant of religion and actually is hostile to religious people.”
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