Prayer before meals back at the table for Pa. seniors

ADF letter prompts center to end ban on voluntary prayers

Thursday, Jun 21, 2012

ADF attorney sound bite:  Matt Sharp

DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. — Senior citizens banned from praying before meals at a Pennsylvania senior center will again be allowed to pray after the center received a letter from the Alliance Defense Fund.

ADF sent its letter to a Pennsylvania senior center Thursday on behalf of Joan Scalia, a member at the center, urging the center to change its new policy prohibiting senior citizens from praying before meals. After receiving the letter, the center’s director contacted ADF and said the seniors would be allowed to pray.

“Silencing seniors who gather to pray before a meal when the Constitution doesn’t require it is dishonorable, so the senior center has done the honorable thing in rectifying the problem,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Matt Sharp. “The private decision of senior citizens to pray before meals is private speech, and no law requires this privately owned senior center to restrict the religious expression of these members of America’s greatest generation.”
 
For many years, senior citizens at the Downingtown Area Senior Center would start lunch by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by prayer. In April, the center reportedly announced that, under its new policy, seniors are prohibited from offering a prayer at the beginning of lunch and may only engage in a “moment of silence.”

The center apparently claimed the prayer ban was necessary because the meals are partially funded by the federal government and because one senior had found another person’s prayer offensive.
 
“Neither federal law nor the U.S. Constitution require the Center to silence the voluntary prayers of senior citizens prior to meals,” the ADF letter stated. “The Center is a private, non-profit organization, and it is free to recognize and celebrate religion at the facility. The right thing to do out of respect for the senior citizens--many of whom fought or saw their spouses fight in wars to defend our nation and the freedoms upon which it is built--is to remove the ban on prayer before meals.”
 
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
 

Legal Documents

ADF letter to Downingtown Area Senior Center: (6/19/2012)

Related Resources

Card Image
ABOUT Matt Sharp

Matt Sharp serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he is the director of the Center for Public Policy. In this role, he leads ADF's team of policy experts as they craft legislation and advise government officials on policies that promote free speech, religious freedom, parental rights, and the sanctity of human life. Since joining ADF in 2010, Sharp has authored federal and state legislation, regularly provides testimony and legal analysis on how proposed legislation will impact constitutional freedoms, and advises governors, legislators, and state and national policy organizations on the importance of laws and policies that protect First Amendment rights. He has twice testified before the U.S. Congress on the importance of protecting free speech and religious liberty in federal law. Sharp also authored an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of nearly 9,000 students, parents, and community members asking the court to uphold students’ right to privacy against government intrusion. Sharp earned his J.D. in 2006 from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. A member of the bar in Georgia and Tennessee, he is also admitted to practice in several federal courts.


Print