CLEMSON — Clemson Mayor Larry Abernathy, who has served on city council for 32 years, said Monday night that he remembers when council discontinued public prayer issued prior to meetings more than 15 years ago.

“Council felt very strongly that if every faith could not be represented, then we needed to look at an alternative,” Abernathy said, adding, “It became extremely difficult to ensure that all faiths were represented, and it became so difficult that the problem started to outweigh the payoff.”

During the July 7 meeting, council member Nancy Bennett said the state legislature recently approved prayer before council meetings and asked her fellow members to consider its implementation at future meetings. The Senate bill, which was sponsored, in part, by Larry Martin, of Pickens County, and Thomas Alexander, who represents Oconee and a portion of Pickens counties, allows state or local governing bodies to adopt a policy allowing for an open invocation through one of three methods:

• One of the public officials, as long as the opportunity is regularly and objectively rotated among all of that body’s public officials;

• A chaplain elected by the public officials of the deliberative public body;

• An invocation speaker selected on an objective and rotating basis from a wide pool of religious leaders serving established religious congregations in the local community in which the deliberative public body meets.

Abernathy, addressing council during its regularly scheduled meeting, said the issue “is more complicated than we tend to think.”

“It’s more than saying ‘We’re going to do this, and this is how we’re going to do it,’” he said. “We need to think about complete representations of faith.”

The mayor said there is also a matter of federal law, adding, “I believe this is a Supreme Court issue, and I’m not sure the South Carolina Supreme Court in all its wisdom can pass a state law that supercedes a federal law.”

Mayor Pro Tem Butch Trent suggested that council resume discussion on the issue at the next meeting, citing the absence of Bennett and her desire to provide input.

“Nancy feels very strongly about this,” Trent said. “I want Nancy to have an opportunity to talk.”

Abernathy suggested that council could offer prayer in a meeting room, apart from council chambers, while council member J.C. Cook proposed a moment of silence.

“That would not offend anyone,” Cook said, adding, “People could do what they want.”

Council member Margaret Thompson said the sad part is that only “the minority (of residents) in the United States are opposed (to an invocation at public meetings).”

“That’s a doggone shame,” Thompson said.

Abernathy requested that the issue be placed back on the agenda for the Aug. 4 meeting and allow for public, as well as additional council, input. The mayor also asked retired Clemson University professor Roger Rollin, who spoke in opposition of the public prayer issue — citing various court cases — during the public comment session, to forward him that information for further review.