Arizona's church-state line is getting fuzzier. How politicians, activists blur the lines – azcentral.com and The Arizona Republic

A scripture reading during a government meeting. Praise for “the one true God” and prayer for a city development deal. Support for mandatory Bible reading from a school board president.
In recent months, elected and public officials across Arizona have unabashedly shared their religious views while carrying out their government roles.
“May we all — when we die — make the demons rejoice,” Fountain Hills Councilmember Hannah Larrabee said at the town’s first meeting after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
She continued, “May we all be so courageous, so bold, so effective, so faithful, so obedient to the Lord, so relentless in the pursuit of his glory that when we die, all of God’s enemies cheer.”
The actions of Larrabee and others have troubled some community members who see an erosion of the separation of church and state.
But government figures, from Fountain Hills to Buckeye, said they’re simply practicing their own religious freedom. They denied claims that their actions showed the government favoring one religion over another.
The instances reflect a shift in local government norms at the same time as national changes occur. President Donald Trump has taken steps to expand religious protections, with a focus on Christians. The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority has shown repeated willingness to protect religious exercise in schools and other public places.
While recent studies have shown Arizona’s Christian population is shrinking, evangelical pastors in the Valley say they are seeing a religious “revival” spurred by the assassination of political influencer and vocal Christian proponent, Charlie Kirk.
Fountain Hills resident Tiana Torrilhon wasn’t a regular attendee of the Town Council meetings, but when her son was invited to receive an award along with other students, the family went.
At the start of the meeting, councilmembers were given time to discuss whatever they wished.
That’s when Councilmember Larrabee gave her remarks about Kirk.
“May we all, when we die, make the demons rejoice,” Larrabee said. “May we all be so courageous, so bold, so effective, so faithful, so obedient to the Lord, so relentless in the pursuit of his glory that when we die, all of God’s enemies cheer. May they lament every breath we take. May they be enraged by every morning that our feet hit the floor. May they wince at every word we say.”
Vice Mayor Allen Skillicorn said Kirk was “not murdered for his politics, he was murdered for his faith in Jesus Christ.”
“I want to share that Romans 10:13 says, ‘For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ Those words are true. And that means that we will be reunited with our brother,” Skillicorn said, referring to Kirk.
Torrilhon was baffled.  
“All people of all faiths or no faiths should be able to come into that space, feel welcome and not feel alienated. And I would argue that having a prayer that is very much geared toward the Christian faith, and having councilmembers actually citing the Bible, having all the speech be about demons and hell and all of that, is not only not appropriate for a child’s celebration for school, it’s also not appropriate for a government building where you would presume that there might be citizens who do not share your same faith because we are in America,” Torrilhon said.
She posted a video of the meeting that went viral on TikTok, garnering 2 million views. The video showed her son, who has autism, sitting during the meeting prayer. An audience member in the row behind poked her child and signaled him to stand up during the prayer.
Torrilhon said she posted it thinking her community, aware of people with autism, would relate, but then the post exploded with comments. Some people thought she was recording at church.
“It’s not fine that thousands of people assumed we were in church when we were in a Town Hall meeting,” Torrilhon said.
The councilmembers saw it differently.
For Larrabee, a key point was that her comments came during the personal comments portion of the meeting, before the council addresses business or takes votes.
“At no point did I try to convert people to Christianity or use faith as a councilmember,” Larrabee said. “But I did talk about it, because that’s who I am. It wasn’t an ordinance or resolution.”
Skillicorn, the vice mayor, said in an interview with The Republic, “Everyone has a right to choose what they believe in, including myself.”
“Our faith is part of our culture, our faith is part of our country, our faith is part of those meetings,” he said.
Asked whether he would support the government establishing a formal religion, he said, “Absolutely not. Because people need to make that decision for themselves. You cannot legislate that decision.”
Robert Boston, senior adviser with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said government officials don’t have to explicitly call for the public’s conversion or pass a rule for an action to be improper. Using government time and resources for religious expression alone, Boston said, is “an attempt to water down the separation of church and state” and “create a de facto official religion.”
Boston said that “de facto” religion wasn’t “a generalized endorsement of religion,” but rather “very specific brands of extremely conservative Christianity.”
The claim that government officials should be afforded the same freedom as everyday people to discuss their faith was echoed by Peoria Mayor Jason Beck.
“We sometimes forget that they have free speech as well,” Beck said about officials. He added that for Christians, and many people of faith, their proclivity for service often stems from their religious beliefs.
His comments came after Deputy City Manager Mike Faust gave a presentation to the Peoria City Council on Aug. 28, outlining the timeline for how a land swap deal with a major semiconductor company came together.
In that public presentation, Faust repeatedly said it was “a God story,” and that, “It’s only through the hand of the one true God that we’re able to do what we do.”
Faust acknowledged that some people might object, saying some may not “want to hear my God story, or tell me there’s a separation of church and state.”
Jon Forsythe, a Peoria resident and frequent critic of the Peoria mayor, said “a mere mention” of one’s faith in a government meeting wouldn’t be a big deal, but the deputy city manager’s presentation “was more than a heavy dose.”
Former Peoria Mayor Cathy Carlat said she believed “there is more of an aptitude … for deciding that it’s going to be the Christian faith,” which she thought was “exclusionary.”
“If somebody is of a different faith or even atheist, it’s not for local government to decide that those people should not have a voice or should have to be insulted or should in any way feel that they don’t belong,” Carlat said.
Beck viewed Faust’s comments differently.
“I was actually proud of him,” Beck said, “and I shared that with him, and I know a lot of people in the community shared that with him. They were very proud that he would state his faith and state the reasoning of why he believed that these things were accomplished.”
Beck said he viewed the ability for people, including those in government, to share their faith in God publicly “is very important.”
Mayor Eric Orsborn in Buckeye, the booming suburb west of Phoenix, was criticized for posting photos of his wife’s prayer gathering on his official city Facebook page.
The event, on the steps outside Buckeye City Hall, was not staffed or organized by city officials, but city employees did brand the photos with official city of Buckeye logos. The mayor’s Facebook page is managed by city staff members.
When residents asked questions, the official city page replied and directed people to email Orsborn’s assistant, another employee of the city. Most responses were positive, but a handful of residents spoke out about Buckeye appearing to “endorse” a religion, reflecting language from the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The First Amendment protects the public’s right to practice their religion and restricts the government from passing laws that establish a religion. The two clauses often are in tension, with factions of people disputing which takes priority.
Orsborn said he believed his wife’s prayer gathering was acceptable but said the city branding on the photos was a mistake. He also said he probably wouldn’t repeat the post, given a do-over, which he called “unfortunate.” Orsborn said he viewed his post not as endorsing one religion but of sharing news, just as he would about another event going on in the city.
“There’s so many different flavors of people. It takes all of us to build a community that is balanced. And you lose that when you can’t have conversations,” Orsborn said.
Heather Rooks, Peoria Unified School District’s board president, prompted controversy over her religious takes the moment she took office. She hasn’t stopped since.
In 2023, Rooks began reciting Bible verses during portions of the meeting reserved for board members’ general comments. The district’s attorneys advised her to stop, claiming it could violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
Rooks sued the district in response, claiming a violation of her religious rights. A federal judge ruled against her, noting that legal advice was not a restriction.
Since then, she has taken positions that appear to contradict the mainstream understanding of church and state separation. On a podcast in September, Rooks said she supported mandatory Bible instruction in schools, agreed that public school teachers should be allowed to freely share their faith with students and that public schools could be saved “with God’s power.”
Jeanne Casteen, executive director of Secular Arizona, condemned the comments and said while the religious rhetoric was “nothing new,” it was being amplified by right-wing leadership nationally.
Annie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said, “Public officials have ample opportunity to stop at church on the way to or from a public meeting or to pray privately.”
Attorneys for Rooks claimed reciting scripture at meetings was in line with historical tradition from Presidents George Washington to Joe Biden.
Rooks told The Arizona Republic that reciting scripture provided “strength” and “healing” that helps her make consequential decisions for the district’s student body. While part of her faith involves evangelizing for Jesus, she said that was not the intent of her Bible reading.
“Have we ever voted on, ‘You need to have a Bible on every student’s desk in the classroom?’ We have not. We have not brought that in the boardroom,” Rooks said. “So when I say these scriptures, it’s God’s living, breathing word and it helps me. It brings me peace.
Asked how she reconciled that position with the statement made on a podcast that public schools should mandate Bible teaching, Rooks said it was her “opinion” and that “if that was the case, it would have already been voted on. But it’s not.”
She expressed a preference for not mandating religious instruction but allowing it.
“I feel like we have taken God out of our country and it’s caused chaos, it’s caused despair. Why would we want to take him out when he brings us peace?” Rooks said.
She added, “But I believe in the Constitution and the freedoms that we have. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I take a stance on removing God out of our country,” Rooks said.
Taylor Seely is a First Amendment Reporting Fellow at The Arizona Republic / azcentral.com. Do you have a story about the government infringing on your First Amendment rights? Reach her at tseely@arizonarepublic.com or by phone at 480-476-6116.
Seely’s role is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.

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