The speaker of the Ohio House of Representative, Jon Husted, has put an end to censorship of prayers given prior to House sessions. Five months ago, a plan was hatched that required prayers be nondenominational, nonsectarian and nonproselytizing — and approved three days before being offered.
“A government, whether it’s state or federal, has no business telling preachers or pastors or persons praying in legislative chambers how they should pray," said Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action. "This is a great decision on a matter that is essentially caused by the confusion in our First Amendment law as it stands right now.”
Mike Johnson with the Alliance Defense Fund said religious liberties are under attack everywhere.
“We’ve received requests for assistance recently from places like South Carolina and Colorado," he told Family News in Focus. "There have been a number of local municipalities that have been confronted by this threat.
“The law is very clear that the government cannot be involved in censoring or screening the speech of private persons, and if they do that, they’ve just violated the law.”
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Thank Speaker of the House Jon Husted for defending religious speech. You can contact him through our Action Center.
