"I don't believe we need to be bowing to the minorities. The U.S. and the Constitution were founded on Christianity. This is what the majority of people believe in and it's what I'm standing up for. I ain't gonna have no new religion or pray to Allah or nothing like that. . . . We're fighting Muslims every day. I'm not saying they're all bad. They believe in a different god than I do. If that's what they want to do, that's fine. But, they don't need to be telling us, as Christians, what we need to be doing. They don't need to be rubbing our faces in it."UPDATE 8/7/15: Muslim Prayer Ends New Invocation Policy in Lincoln County
-- Carrol Mitchem, Chairman, Lincoln County Board of Commissioners
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Atheists Defeat Veterans Memorial in North Carolina
Atheists Commandeer Invocations: Florida City Council
Ohio Councilman Won't Stop Praying in Jesus' Name
Students, School Reject ACLU's Ungodly Demand
Texas School Supt. Tells Atheists to Go Fly a Kite
Also read Atheists, Liberals Lament Recent Supreme Court Religious Liberty Rulings
-- From "Commissioners to allow invocation of non-Christian prayer at Lincoln County meetings" by Sarah-Blake Morgan & John Cominsky, WBTV-TV3 (Charlotte, NC) 5/18/15
"The religious leaders or chosen leaders of any assembly that periodically and regularly meets in Lincoln County for the purpose of worshiping or discussing their religious perspectives are invited to offer an invocation before a meeting of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners," a note from the board stated.
"This opportunity is voluntary, and invocation speakers are free to offer the invocation according to the dictates of their own conscience," the note continues. "The Board requests only that the prayer opportunity not be exploited as an effort to convert others to the particular faith of the invocational speaker, threaten damnation, nor to disparage any faith or belief different than that of the invocational speaker."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Board of Commissioners approves prayer policy, Mitchem backtracks" by Adam Lawson, Staff Writer, Lincoln Times-News 5/18/15
Every seat in the chamber was filled and several dozen watched on a video screen in the lobby of the third floor of the James W. Warren Citizens Center as Lincoln County commissioners formally adopted a new prayer policy during their meeting on Monday night.
The policy’s adoption followed a lengthy public comments portion that saw 10 of 14 people who discussed the issue disagree with Mitchem’s statements in some form. Some said they didn’t agree with his viewpoint but approved of his right to make his comments. Others discussed their complete dissatisfaction with his remarks.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Commissioner Alex Patton said. “I’m glad that we actually did that and got it behind us. Hopefully that will make Lincoln County stop looking like a national embarrassment. We have never discriminated against anybody. I was the chair for six years and we never denied anybody that came and wanted to give the invocation.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Washington religious freedom group threatens lawsuit" by Adam Lawson, Staff Writer, Lincoln Times-News 5/11/15
The [threatening] letter, sent from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, comes in response to Board of Commissioners chairman Carrol Mitchem’s comments in Friday’s Times-News. . . .
In a press release, Americans United executive director Rev. Barry W. Lynn criticized Mitchem’s understanding of the Constitution. . . .
The letter enclosed a model policy that would, according to Americans United, ensure that such discrimination would not occur. The policy asks Lincoln County to open invocations up to all faiths and to any citizen of the county. That citizen “need not be a member of the clergy in order to deliver a solemnizing message.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Atheists Force Michigan Schools to Ban Christians
And read President Obama Provokes Second 'In God We Trust' Movement
