Thursday, October 02, 2008
Pastors decry police prayer policy
Religious leaders pushed to overturn the policy that requires prayers to be nondenominational.
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roanoke.com/politics
RICHMOND -- A policy requiring Virginia State Police chaplains to offer nondenominational prayers at department-sanctioned events has drawn the ire of a group of pastors, who urged Gov. Tim Kaine to reverse the policy Wednesday.
Six troopers who participate in the department's chaplaincy program have relinquished their volunteer duties in protest of the directive, which came from state police superintendent Col. Steve Flaherty. Del. Bill Carrico, R-Grayson County, a retired state trooper, is leading a legislative effort to overturn the policy.
Several pastors and the executive director of The Family Foundation of Virginia denounced the policy in a news conference Wednesday, calling it an attack on Christianity.
"This is about the Antichrist being at work now," said Hashmel Turner of Fredericksburg, a Baptist minister and city councilman at the center of a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that led to the state police policy.
The court ruled in July that Turner could not pray "in Jesus' name" during an invocation that opens council meetings. Last month, Flaherty cited the ruling in asking chaplains to offer nondenominational prayers at department-sanctioned public events such as trooper graduations and an annual memorial service. The policy would not apply to private events such as funerals or counseling fellow employees or grieving families.
The governor's office had no input on the policy, but Kaine has backed Flaherty steadfastly.
"The governor has made his position on this very clear and his position has not changed," Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said.
Former U.S. Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt on Wednesday defended the police chaplains who resigned their volunteer duties, calling them "heroes who stood up for Jesus." Klingenschmitt was reprimanded by the Navy and fined in 2006 for disobeying a superior officer's order by wearing his uniform to a news conference protesting the Navy's prayer policy.
Klingenschmitt also blasted Kaine over an exchange of letters with the governor on the issue. Klingenschmitt sent Kaine a letter last week accusing the governor of "defending religious discrimination."
He also forwarded a pledge signed by 86 Virginia pastors in response to an e-mail from Donald Wildmon, the founder of the American Family Association, to Klingenschmitt. In the e-mail, Wildmon wrote that the state police policy "is only the tip of the iceberg which will confront Christians if the liberals win the upcoming elections on November 4. That is the reason it is so vitally important for pastors to take a stand."
Kaine took note of the rallying cry in his letter to Klingenschmitt, writing: "I take matters of faith and religious liberty very seriously and am offended when people attempt to inflame passions about these sacred matters for political ends."
