PASTOR ASSAILS SPEAKER JOE HACKNEY'S BAN ON NAME OF 'JESUS' IN PRAYER


From:

Rev. Brian Lowman, Pastor
South Hills Baptist Church
6400 Holly Springs Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27606

I read the following story on Christian NewsWire and because it pertains to our great state of NC I wanted to share it with you. This story has been on Fox News as well as various other news media outlets. It is a shame that our leaders have become so “politically correct” that we can no longer call upon the name above all names. I would encourage you to contact your NC Congressman and let them know how you feel.

RALEIGH, N.C., July 13 /Christian Newswire/ — The Pray In Jesus Name Project is faxing more than 140,000 petitions to the North Carolina State-House, demanding legislators reverse Speaker Joe Hackney’s ban against the forbidden word “Jesus” during public prayers spoken by volunteer pastors giving the invocation.

Nearly 1,000 citizens from all 50 states signed the free petition on the first day, which was then faxed to each of 120 North Carolina State Representatives and all 50 Senators.

On May 31, Speaker Hackney verbally banned Jesus’ name as “illegal speech” by disinviting Pastor Ron Baity from praying before the legislature after pre-screening the prayer content and objecting to his closing words, “in Jesus name.” No written policy exists banning prayer content, but the Speaker is now writing one.

“I got fired,” said Ron Baity, pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. He had been invited to lead prayer for an entire week but his tenure was cut short when he refused to remove the name Jesus from his invocation.

“Our petition campaigns have helped reverse Jesus-bans in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, California and Virginia, and now we fight for free religious speech in North Carolina,” said former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, leader of The Pray in Jesus Name Project. Klingenschmitt himself was punished for praying “in Jesus name” in uniform in 2006, but was later vindicated by the U.S. Congress. “Pastor Baity is a hero for refusing to water-down his prayers,” he said.

Despite deceptive claims by the ACLU’s easily-offended atheist complainers, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals specifically authorized legislatures to allow Jesus-prayers in Turner v. Fredericksburg, when Justice O’Connor wrote: “the Establishment Clause does not absolutely dictate the form of legislative prayer. In Marsh, the legislature employed a single chaplain…the legislature in Simpson allowed a diverse group of church leaders from around the community to give prayers at open meetings. Both varieties of legislative prayer were found constitutional.”

tinyurl.com/illegaljesus


Pastor@SouthHillsBaptist.org

Contact: Chaplain Klingenschmitt, www.PrayInJesusName.org, 719-360-5132, chaplaingate@yahoo.com; Stephanie Lewis, TC Public Relations, 312-422-1333, Stephanie@tcpr.net

NOTE FROM VERNE STRICKLAND

HACKNEY BIO

Joe Hackney (born September 23, 1945, in Chatham County, NC) is a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's fifty-fourth House district, including constituents in Chatham, Orange, and Moore counties. A farmer and attorney from Chapel Hill, Hackney is currently (2009-2010 session) serving in his fifteenth term in the state House of Representatives and is the Speaker of the House.

AND HERE'S HOW TO REACH MR. HACKNEY

Representative Joe Hackney, Democrat

District: 54

Counties Represented: Chatham, Moore, Orange

Office: 2304 Legislative Building

Phone: 919-733-3451

Email: Joeh@ncleg.net

Legislative Mailing Address:

NC House of Representatives

16 W. Jones Street, Room 2304

Raleigh, NC 27601-1096

Home Address: 410 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Phone: 919-929-0323

Website: http://www.joehackney.com/