Michigan Christians Denied Permit for Local NDP Event
by Allie Martin
March 21, 2005
(AgapePress) - Officials in one Michigan city have denied a group of Christians a permit to meet for National Day of Prayer observances -- and may face legal action as a result.For the past ten years, Christians in Troy, Michigan, have joined hundreds of thousands of believers nationwide in National Day of Prayer observances on the first Thursday in May. But this year, Troy city officials refused to issue a permit for the event. Why? According to local coordinator Lori Wagner, this year's planned meeting was challenged by the Jewish, Muslim, and Indian community.
"We're not being divisive, we're not being exclusionary," Wagner says. "The whole focus [according to those opposing the event] is that [the event is] about diversity -- but diversity does not amalgamate our faith. It does not force us to be one in our belief on any subject, but it allows us the freedom to function within our appropriate subgroups."
Wagner says she has contacted the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center and may take legal action against the city. "[City officials'] basis for denying this was that the city has not established the area in front of city hall as a public forum -- so therefore they can control who meets there," she explains.
But according to Wagner, the city attorney has informed her group it could argue that even though the area has not officially been designated a public forum, it is a public forum. "It has been used by different groups that aren't city groups for functions ever since it's been there," she says.
Fifty-three churches are trying to sponsor the Troy event on May 5. The theme for this year's national observance is "God Shed His Grace on Thee." The chairman for National Day of Prayer is Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
