First Liberty reports that the city manager, Scott Chadwick, has ordered the chaplains for the city’s fire and police departments not to conclude prayers by saying “in Jesus' name.”
JC Cooper is a local pastor who has served as a volunteer police chaplain for the city’s police department for six years. His father, Denny Cooper, has served in a similar role for the Carlsbad Fire Department for 18 years.
According to First Liberty, the two chaplains “provide support, encouragement, and prayer to first responders as they face traumatic situations. Recently, Pastor JC Cooper was asked to give the invocation at the police department’s award ceremony. As he has always done, the pastor concluded his prayer “consistent with his long-held beliefs, ‘in Jesus’ name.’”
That apparently did not sit well with Chadwick, who told Pastor Cooper that he could no longer use “in Jesus’ name” from his invocations, he would be subject to discipline. He was told that he could use any other name in place of God, however he could not use the Son of God, Jesus.
The policy appears to stem from a decision made in 2023, when the city council voted to discontinue the pre-meeting invocations that had been a part of their meetings since at least the 1950s, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
As is typical, a number of individuals spoke out in support of the decision to eliminate the invocation from council meetings, citing the ill-understood so-called “separation of church and state,” which appears nowhere in the First Amendment.
In supporting the continuation of an invocation, former city council member Mark Packard dismissed First Amendment concerns.
“This would be a return to the good values that we have had for so long in Carlsbad,” said Packard, noting that the Congress starts each legislative session with an invocation and reminding members that courts have ruled such readings are not a violation of the so-called “separation of church and state.”
