Clergy Calls for Mayor’s Resignation

TUSTIN —  le Mayor Richard B. Edgar tries to distance himself from the growing controversy over restrictions on prayers before public meetings, the leader of an angry group of clergy on Thursday called for Edgar’s resignation.

This week, Edgar sent another letter to local clergy in which he backed off from the city attorney’s statement that ministers could no longer mention any religion or deity during invocations.

Edgar said his original letter, written on the advice of City Atty. James Rourke, was only intended to prevent ministers from “preaching” during invocations. The issue has been blown out of proportion, he said.

“I did not say you can’t mention Jesus Christ,” Edgar said. “All I said is that the Supreme Court has made some rulings. Here are the rulings. Please follow them.”

But members of the Christian Coalition group say the mayor’s latest letter is an inadequate response, and they have launched a campaign against the city called “Operation Just Cause.”

At a meeting Thursday night, about 50 people gathered at the Church of the New Covenant in Tustin to plot strategy.

“The mayor’s just trying to sidestep the whole issue with that letter,” said Frank Kazerski, a spokesman for Christian Coalition. “We’re not satisfied with what he’s done.”

After much discussion, group members decided to ask the mayor to rescind his original letter and to tell him they disapprove of the city attorney’s advice.

The group says it is planning a demonstration and press conference for Monday at noon in front of City Hall and expects several hundred supporters to attend the Monday evening council meeting.

“We had about 2,000 Pat Robertson for President workers, and we have a lot more people interested in this than we did in Pat Robertson for President,” said Norm Hahn, an Anaheim resident and county coordinator for Christian Coalition, a national group supporting traditional values.

Hahn called for the mayor to resign and for Rourke to be fired. It was Rourke’s memo regarding court decisions about invocations that prompted Edgar’s original letter.

Rourke said the city must abide by a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that said “invocations shouldn’t be overly religious and shouldn’t identify with particular religions.”

He said that Christian Coalition is “an outside group that wants to come in and tell the people of Tustin how religion should be conducted in the city.”

Indeed, just four of 52 valid signatures on a protest letter delivered to City Hall last week were from Tustin residents.