A California city has reportedly banned volunteer police and firefighters from invoking the name of Jesus when praying with public employees.
Denny Cooper and his son, JC Cooper, have served the residents of Carlsbad, California, for many years. Denny is a physical education teacher and baseball coach and has served as a volunteer chaplain for the city’s fire department for 18 years. JC is an associate pastor at a mission church and has served as a volunteer chaplain for the Carlsbad Police Department for six years.
Praying without invoking the name of Jesus “is a denial of the Savior Jesus Christ, an offense against conscience, and a sin.”
But Carlsbad Mayor Scott Chadwick seems to resent the fact that the pastor’s job is explicitly Christian. letter Chadwick, of the First Liberty Institute, a legal nonprofit that aims to protect religious freedom, recently told the JC and Police Chief Christy Calderwood that mentioning Jesus’ name during public prayer “is considered harassment, creates a hostile work environment and privileges one religion over another.”
According to the FLI letter, a Carlsbad City Council member filed a complaint after JC finished praying in the name of Jesus at a Carlsbad Police Department awards ceremony, but it is unclear if the complainant was Chadwick.
Chief Calderwood has since instructed JC not to mention the name of Jesus when praying with police officers.”[J.C.] “He could use any name he wanted as long as it wasn’t ‘Jesus,'” she said, according to the letter.
Fire Chief Mike Calderwood gave similar instructions to Pastor Denny Cooper, who reportedly claimed Chadwick was issuing instructions from the Antichrist.
The Cooper men discussed the order, and with the help of their pastor, JC decided that praying without saying Jesus’ name “would be a denial of our Savior, a violation of our conscience and a sin,” the letter states. He was then asked to pray at another recent event at the police station, but declined.
In its letter, FLI wants to remind Carlsbad officials that the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that public pastors may invoke the name of Jesus. Indeed, the no-name-of-Jesus policy, which Chadwick allegedly implemented unilaterally “without City Council review or vote,” may even violate the Coopers’ First Amendment free speech rights.
In its letter, FLI called on the City Council to reconsider its decision “to censor pastors’ prayers” and “return to the long-standing practice of pastors being free to pray according to their sincere religious beliefs.” FLI also offered to help the city develop a constitutional prayer policy that would not deprive the city’s police officers and firefighters of the “comfort and spiritual strength” that “the volunteer work of chaplains” provides.
Carlsbad officials did not respond to a request for comment. The Washington Times or Christian Post.
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