RALEIGH – Republican leaders in the state House of Representatives said Friday they’re reviewing a complaint by a civil liberties group about prayers in the General Assembly, but that they believe the group is out of touch with the concerns of North Carolina residents.

House Speaker Thom Tillis and Majority Leader Paul Stam both said they’ll consider the concerns raised in the letter sent Thursday by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, but neither lawmaker thinks there’s much to the group’s contention that prayers at sessions of the legislature violate the First Amendment.

“The ACLU has an affinity for pushing a radical, far-left agenda that is out of touch with most North Carolinians,” Tillis said in a statement. “The same Constitution that prohibits government-sponsored religion also protects the right of individuals to exercise their faith as they so choose.”

The group’s letter to Attorney General Roy Cooper cited the decision last month by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear an appeal of a case in which a lower federal court ruled that prayers endorsing a specific religion can’t be offered at meetings of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.

Such sectarian prayers, almost always Christian, are common during sessions of both the House and Senate, according to complaints received by the ACLU. The Senate has a chaplain that offers invocations, while Tillis has invited individual lawmakers to lead prayers before sessions.

“As private individuals, members of the General Assembly are free to pray on their own in whatever way they choose,” said Katy Parker, legal director of the state ACLU chapter, in response to the statements by Tillis and Stam.

“But when a prayer is used in a government chamber to open the legislature representing North Carolinians of all faiths and beliefs, the law clearly states that the prayer cannot be specific to one religion, whether offered by a legislator or by an invited prayer-giver,” she said.

Stam said he doesn’t think the prayers in the House are at all the same as the matter in the Forsyth County court case.

“Members volunteer to pray and do so at their own free will, and their prayers are not directed or censored by any government official,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Cooper’s office, which represents the state in legal matters, said the attorney general will make lawmakers aware of the ACLU’s concerns. Calls to Senate leaders weren’t immediately returned Friday.