EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated with comments Commissioner Roger Belknap published on his website Friday.
OTTAWA COUNTY — A pastor from Grand Haven claims a sign displayed while he gave an invocation before the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners is further evidence that far-right members of the board discriminated against him for his more progressive faith.
An attorney for Rev. Jared Cramer said the county undercut its own argument when Commissioner Roger Belknap displayed a sign specifically protesting his presence.
“(The board) had repeatedly assured the court they had no objection to plaintiff leading the prayer … and therefore did not intentionally exclude (Cramer) when he asked multiple times of multiple different people in multiple different ways to give the invocation,” attorney Sarah Riley-Howard wrote in a new court filing Thursday, Feb. 15.
“Belknap’s one-man protest and media interview directly and openly contradict that assertion. Before (Cramer) could even begin the prayer, Belknap demonstrated his objection to (Cramer’s) presence by posting a sign at the center of the dais where the commission sits.”