Castle Rock Prayer at
City Council Meetings

In January, the Castle Rock town council voted to start every meeting with a prayer. (Click here to see the town of Castle Rock's city council agenda.) Prayers are offered by a rotation of the town’s church leaders. After being contacted by a citizen who objects to mixing religion with government business, we examined the legality of the policy.

While technically legal*, we feel that prayer during government meetings is not in keeping with the intent of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. We are asking for your help in convincing the Castle Rock city council to reconsider this new policy.

The town council chambers are not a church, and council business must be entirely secular. The council should serve all residents equally, without actual or implied prejudice according to belief or non-belief. Prayer is an act to be performed only as one’s faith dictates.
           
Please join your neighbors and fellow civil libertarians in a campaign to convince the council to reverse this policy or change it to a moment of silence. We have prepared a variety of tools to support this effort:

• sample letter to the editor
• sample letter to city council (Word)(PDF)
• sample letter to council members (Word)(PDF)
• sample letter to religious figures or leaders (Word)(PDF)
• Explanation of the legal history of prayer at meetings
• A lengthy article explaining the ACLU's position and discussion points (Word)(PDF)

If you are a member of a Castle Rock church, we suggest you ask your congregation and minister, pastor or priest, to initiate a discussion of the appropriateness of the prayer.

As you take part in this campaign, please remember that those who have initiated and support the prayers have acted in good faith, though misguided, and should be treated with respect.
             
We hope to hear from you and to have your support in this effort to return town business and prayer to their proper and different venues. You will be included in this group ONLY if you give a positive response. We respect your privacy!

Please respond to Peter Shultz at peteshultz@aol.com, or 303-469-9093, or to erikm@aclu-co.org. We value your comments as well. Many thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,
                                                       
Cathy Hazouri                                      Peter Shultz
Executive Director                               Co-chair, Church/State
ACLU of Colorado                              Issues Committee                                            
 
*Unfortunately, both the U.S. Supreme Court and our Denver-based Tenth Circuit Appeals Court have approved “legislative prayer” as acceptable and not in violation of the First Amendment, as long as government does not advance or disparage a particular spiritual perspective. Furthermore, other decisions make it likely that prayers mentioning a specific deity (Jesus Christ, for example) are acceptable.

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Castle Rock City Council Contact Information

Letters to the Editor:

The Castle Rock News-Press
125 Stephanie Place
Castle Rock, CO 80109
(303) 688-3128
Jeremy Bangs, Managing Editor
jbangs@ccnewspapers.com

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