Maryland County Council Stops Praying ‘Our Father’ After Atheist Group Threatens Lawsuit

 Jesus: If you deny me before men, I will deny you before My Father!

And so, it goes...

From lifesitenews.com, written by Emily Mangiaracina Wed Jan 28, 2026 - 1:54 pm EST: Maryland county council stops praying ‘Our Father’ after atheist group threatens lawsuit - LifeSite

"(LifeSiteNews) — A Maryland county council has stopped its tradition of beginning meetings by praying the “Our Father” after it received letters threatening litigation from the atheist group “Freedom from Religion Foundation” (FFRF).

While legal experts say the practice of praying before meetings is clearly constitutional, the council is concerned that it would be crushed by legal fees if it continues its practice of reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

The council has recently been hit with several letters threatening lawsuits, “including three letters of demand” from FFRF, which has proclaimed its purpose is to “promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.”

The Wicomico County Council in southeastern Maryland is considering replacing its longstanding practice of prayer by council members with “holding a moment of silence, hosting a clergy-led prayer or letting Wicomico County voters decide through a referendum,” according to the Salisbury Independent.

Council President John Cannon said during a January 20 legislative meeting that there has been “a great deal of disappointment” about the decision and that he “share[d] in that disappointment.” He pointed out that the tradition of praying the Our Father had been in place well before he began his council position 20 years ago.

“We are not a council that shies away from a challenge simply because litigation is threatened,” Cannon continued. “But when legal counsel is clear about the probable outcome, when the financial risk to our citizens is so substantial, we have a responsibility to weigh fiscal stewardship against our desire to preserve a tradition we’ve honored for so many years.”

David Cortman, senior counsel and vice president of U.S. Litigation at Alliance Defending Freedom, says the tradition of praying before legislative meetings goes back to the founding of the U.S. and that its legitimacy has since been affirmed by the Supreme Court.

“What’s funny about this recent case [is that] it feels a little bit like a blast from the past,” he remarked during “Washington Watch” on Monday. “These issues have been … settled by the Supreme Court over a decade ago,” said Cortman, going on to note that the country’s highest court ruled about 40 years ago that legislative prayer is constitutional. Marsh v. Chambers in 1983 upheld the Nebraska legislature’s practice of opening sessions with a prayer by a publicly funded chaplain. That decision noted that legislative prayer has been practiced in the U.S. since the First Congress, something alluded to by Cortman.

“These type of legislative prayers have been ongoing since, literally, [when] the First Amendment was passed,” said Cortman. “And Congress … hired a chaplain to engage in legislative prayers at the very beginning of our country, and so they’re permissible now.”

Groups like FFRF have been exploiting for decades a misunderstanding of the Establishment Clause, the so-called “separation of church and state,” which “doesn’t carry what the Left wants it to carry,” according to Cortman.

“They send out these fear-mongering letters, they threaten litigation, they threaten attorney fees, and towns and counties just look at their budget and say, ‘Look, we’re already strapped. We don’t want to take the risk of having to pay out attorney fees.’”

The attorney further advised that the left-leaning courts of Maryland should not discourage Cannon from holding firm to the council’s practice of prayer and even engaging in litigation if needed.

“[S]ometimes the law is different in different areas of the country, but that’s why the Supreme Court is there to even all that out,” he stressed. “[F]ederal law, according to the Supreme Court, is uniform everywhere. So you may have recalcitrant courts that try to distinguish cases or draw the lines differently. But even if this case [went] all the way up to the Supreme Court again, [it] would certainly … bless this practice because it’s part of the tradition of our country going back to our Founders.”

Cortman urged other local governments facing similar legal challenges to turn to groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, “who could give them legal advice on the exact issue.”

“I’ve seen these letters from Freedom from Religion Foundation literally for 30 years. … They threaten you with litigation and try to get towns and localities to stop doing whatever religious practice it happens to be. So they need to get advice from groups like ADF who do this sort of work and give them the advice and then hopefully make the decision to take a stand.”

“Because if we don’t, what happens is that erodes religious freedom for all of us.”'

End of very revealing article...

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Gene DeLalla