TUSTIN : 2 Council Members Oppose PrayerStand

Two City Council members said Thursday that they oppose Mayor Richard B. Edgar’s attempt to keep the words “Jesus Christ” out of invocations given by clergy at council meetings.

John Kelly and Earl J. Prescott criticized a letter sent by Edgar to local clergy asking them to “refrain from using language that might be construed as endorsing a particular religious belief.”

They said they supported a petition, drafted by free-lance writer Frank Kazerski and signed by about 50 residents, asking the mayor to apologize to area clergy and “restore their free speech rights.”

Kazerski presented the petition to the mayor Thursday, and said he had received no response.

“I’m opposed to a rigid, drafted, generic, gutless invocation,” Kelly said.

Added Prescott: “There must remain an inseparable wall of church and state in this country. At the same time, our freedom of speech must be vigorously defended. For Dick Edgar to want to curtail these people in their freedom of speech is to be abhorred and exposed.”

Both said the issue was never discussed by the council and that Edgar and City Atty. James G. Rourke were acting on their own in drafting the letter.

In Tustin, like many cities, the council schedules various ministers and rabbis to give an invocation before each meeting.

Rourke said several recent court decisions prompted him to recommend to the mayor that invocations are permissible only if the primary effect is to establish order and create a solemn tone for the meeting.