The following is a report made by Janet Joyner, one of the plaintiffs in Joyner vs Forsyth County. Her report was made at the request of Charles F. Wilson, local AU President. First, while Judge Beatty ruled to vacate the Injunction based on the settled law before the Greece decision, he also issued a severe warning that the Commissioners’ policy and practices will surely invite further legal challenges if they do not conform to the level of inclusiveness and demographic diversity inherent in the Greece policy. Something the local policy currently does not do. Our brief to Judge Beatty outlined the divergences between our Commissioners’ policy and that of Greece. These are: 1) Our policy discriminates against faiths that do not have a hierarchical structure with priests or clergy; 2) it’s definition of “established faiths” discriminates against faiths that are relatively new to the area, have relatively few congregants, or that do not have a telephone number, the factor the policy uses for issuing invitations to potential Invocation givers; 3) the current policy’s refusal to include atheists or agnostics in the Invocation invitation list; as well as 4) the practice of Commissioners inviting citizens to participate in religious exercises. Judge Beatty’s warning referred to each of these differences. I believe he did so in a mostly positive way. His admonition, however, does not seem to provide adequate Invocation opportunity for atheists and agnostics who do not generally form “congregations” or “associations.” Something Beatty’s remarks seemed to require. Moreover, since the County’s current policy, prepared for them by the Christian- based Alliance Defense Fund (now the Alliance Defending Freedom) has removed the Invocation as part of the meeting, and, therefore, as within the scope of the record, or minutes, of the meeting, it will be difficult for anyone to prove anything over the “long historical scope.”
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:14:14 +0000
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