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House Speaker Brian Bosma said that he will comply with a U.S. district judge’s decision to bar specific references to Christianity by reminding the person picked for today’s opening invocation in the Indiana House of Representatives.
Judge David Hamilton ruled in November a case brought against Bosma by four lobbyists that prayers with specific references to Jesus Christ in the House were unconstitutional. The speaker was strongly against the ban from the start and had requested that the judge amend his ruling to be less vague but was denied.
The speaker would not say who he had chosen to deliver the opening and also would not say if he had reviewed it.
“You will know at the same time the rest of us do,” Bosma said, according to the Associated Press.
Bosma had given “a little” consideration to possibly denying Hamilton’s order but decided against it because he said it would send the wrong signal to citizens regarding their obligation to court orders. He said he will appeal his case to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Critics of Hamilton’s decision say that the judge is undermining a 188-year Indiana tradition by interfering in the legislative branch.
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State Rep. Terry Goodin (D-Crothersville) is among several House members who say they will “absolutely” speak Christ’s name if given the opportunity.
"Really, who do you pray to? If you're offering up a prayer, you're praying to a deity. You don't offer prayers to just an open space," Goodin said, according to the Concord Monitor. "I will give the same type of prayer that's been given for 100 years. I won't change my words because of someone in the judicial branch who tells me I must."
The suit against Bosma was filed after one minister, Clarence Brown, who led the House in prayer offered to sing “Just a Little Talk With Jesus.” Many legislators joined in but several walked out.
Later the Indiana Civil Liberties Union filed a suit on behalf of a Quaker, a Methodist and two Catholics who said that the prayers in the house had become too sectarian. Judge Hamilton ruled on Nov. 30 that the overwhelming amount of prayers had promoted Christianity.
Clarence Brown, an evangelical Christian layman who works in an auto parts factory said he had wanted to “share the word. That’s what I’m supposed to do,” he said according to the Washington Post. “I have to do what Jesus Christ says for me to do as a witness.”
Bosma is scheduled to be in attendance in Philadelphia for the 'Justice Sunday III' broadcast on Jan. 8. The previous two editions of the program have focused on Christian advocacy for judges who organizers say are being blocked from serving by senators because of their faith. The focus of the program has also been on liberal judges engaged in "judicial activism" that impose their personal views in matters of law.
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