(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) It was reported that a California city had forbidden its volunteer police and fire chaplains to invoke the name of Jesus Christ while praying with police officers and firefighters.
Blaze News reported that Denny Cooper and his son J.C. Cooper have been ministering to residents in the City of Carlsbad, Calif., for many years. Denny is a gym teacher and baseball coach who has been a volunteer chaplain with the city’s fire department for 18 years, while his son is an associate pastor at the Mission Church who has been volunteering as a chaplain for the city’s Police Department for six years.
However, Carlsbad city manager Scott Chadwick expressed his hatred of Christianity by recently telling J.C. and Police Chief Christie Calderwood that referencing the name of Jesus during a public-oriented prayer “was considered harassment, created a hostile work environment and lifted one religion above another,” according to a letter from First Liberty Insitute (FLI), a legal nonprofit dedicated to protecting religious liberties.
The FLI letter claimed that a member of the Carlsbad City Council even complained after J.C. closed his prayer during the Carlsbad Police Department Awards Ceremony in the name of Jesus, even though it wasn’t clear whether Chadwick was the complainant.
Since then Police Chief Calderwood ordered J.C. not to mention Jesus’ name during his prayers with members of the police force.
“[J.C.] could use any other name he wanted as long as it was not ‘Jesus,'” Calderwood said, according to the letter.
Similar instructions were given to chaplain Denny Cooper by Fire Chief Mike Calderwood, adding that the directive came from Chadwick.
“After seeking counsel from his lead pastor and Denny, J.C. told the police chief that removing the name of Jesus from his prayers would be a denial of his Savior Jesus Christ, a violation of his conscience, and a sin,” the letter stated.
