A minister won the right to lead people in prayer at the U.S. Capitol. Pierre Bynum, associate pastor of Waldorf Christian Assembly in Charles County, Md., filed a federal lawsuit after Capitol Police threatened to arrest him (see link #1 below) in November 1996 in the Capitol Rotunda for conducting a self-guided "prayer tour" of the building, saying his group of eight people was staging an illegal, disruptive demonstration, news reports said. ...Bynum was not staging a demonstration, and the group caused no disturbance and had a constitutional right to engage in free speech, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled March 31. ..."We were absolutely stupefied" by the threat of arrest, Bynum told The Washington Post. "We were praying for our country." Bynum, 51, is a leader of Capitol Hill Prayer Alert (see link #2 below), a Christian ministry that prays for the United States and its leaders. ...His prayer tour was part of a 40-day prayer vigil. He said he had taken groups on similar tours about 30 times before he was threatened with arrest, the Post said. That day he was leading his family and a small church group to various historic sites in the building, occasionally pausing to raise topics for reflection, and people in the group closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and folded their hands. Bynum said he originally sought an apology from Capitol Police, believing the incident was a misunderstanding, but filed suit in June 1997 when officials defended their actions. ...Government lawyers said prayer had been banned in the building unless conducted in the chapel or other designated places at the invitation of members of Congress. They cited a 1946 federal law making it illegal to "parade, demonstrate, or picket" in the Capitol, and a Capitol Police regulation that defines demonstrations as conduct that conveys a message or supports a point of view and that draws a crowd of onlookers. Friedman struck down the regulation as unconstitutionally vague, and said the federal law was aimed at preventing disruptions in Congress, not "quiet praying." ..."The U.S. Capitol is a symbol of freedom and free speech," said James Henderson of the American Center for Law and Justice, which defended Bynum. "We are grateful the court found that prayer is protected speech, not a form of demonstration."

Link #1: http://www.religiontoday.com/Archive/
Reprinted with permission by ReligionToday  April 6, 2000

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