Audio: Forsyth County’s Board of Commissioners Walter Marshall says that the Christian Right are racists

Throw the constitution out the window because it doesn’t matter anymore, at least to Walter Marshall who sits on the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina. He will vote not to appeal a recent court ruling that many say violates the constitution regarding then opening of their Board of Commissioners meetings with prayer. At issue here is not simply prayer, but specifically the kind that mentions the name of Jesus:

The county was sued in 2007 by citizens who said that the county was promoting Christianity because most of the opening invocations mentioned Jesus. The county’s prayer policy allowed clergy from any faith to present a prayer on a first-come, first-served basis.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State backed the citizens who sued.

Judge James A. Beaty Jr. of U.S. District Court recently ruled that the county cannot allow prayers with sectarian content before meetings. Beaty said that the county could choose to have no prayer or a nonsectarian prayer instead.

If all of this wasn’t bad enough, Walter Marshall said this morning on the local 94.5 Rush Radio station that the people pushing for prayer are the same people who opposed segregation:

“In my case the same folk who are pushing for the right to pray are the ones who were opposed to desegregation. …I’m talking about the Christian Right, the Christian Right were the same folk who opposed, in the name of Jesus, segregating the public schools, they were opposed to district elections, they supported a submissive role for women and for blacks in government.”

I’ve included most of the interview here for those who want to hear the background, but skip to around 3:45 if you want to go directly to the racist comments made by Walter Marshall.

UPDATE: If the video doesn’t play for you, select the 360p button and select 480p and it should start playing.


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