North Carolina reverses ban, permits prayers "in Jesus name"

North Carolina state legislator Paul Stam announced the North Carolina legislature has now reversed their 6-month ban on prayers ending "in Jesus name."  The new policy is to never screen or censor prayers, period.





Pastor Ron Baity has not yet received an apology for his wrongful termination, but he is glad the policy was reversed. "My own representative Larry Brown reached out to me and invited me to come back again and pray in Jesus' name on the floor, and I hope they can get approval for me to do that in two weeks," Pastor Baity said. I think it's a good victory. It's a whole new attitude in this [state] government since the election. This new legislature may even allow the people to finally vote on the [traditional] marriage amendment. We've been fighting that battle for seven years."



In July last year, Democrat Speaker Joe Hackney had improperly fired Pastor Ron Baity as honorary chaplain because the pastor prayed "in Jesus name."  Many North Carolina voters were angry with Hackney and, therefore, threw his entire party out of the majority in November.


North Carolina is the 10th major victory for the right to pray "in Jesus name."  Previously reversed bans have been in New York, California, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Oklahoma, Virginia, and for U.S. Military Chaplains.  A big thank you to Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt for all his efforts. 




Disclaimer: The views of Chaplain Klingenschmitt, who was honorably but involuntarily discharged from the Navy in 2007 after facing court-martial for praying "in Jesus name" in uniform, (but was later vindicated by Congress), are his own personal views, not the views of any political party, government, or organization.

".....the new Speaker's policy is simply to not pre-screen the prayers. The previous Speaker had verbally misinterpreted the old written policy, but now he's gone, since his party lost the election."



 

"We've been in session four days now, and on the first day a former Governor [Martin] led the prayer, and he prayed 'in Jesus name.   We also have a new House Speaker [Tom Tillis, R-Mecklenberg County] whose policy is to simply not preview or censor the prayers, and let the person pray however they want to pray. The election made a difference, since we have a new [Republican] majority, and a new government, so we have a new prayer policy too."