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It is a pretty simple question. Does a coach retain the right to have a private moment of prayer, even if he’s in public?
The activist left was pretty confident they had all but stamped out all religious expressions in the schools. Scratch that — they don’t mind if Muslims pray. Some schools even provide a special room for the purpose.
But let a Christian show the faintest sign of his faith in public, and it could cost him his job. And for one coach, that’s exactly what happened.
Here are the broad strokes of what happened to precipitate the religious freedom case SCOTUS just ruled on.
Joseph Kennedy, a former public high school football coach who continued to openly pray in the middle of the football field right after games, has been doing so for years. Initially, he began by praying alone, but over the years players joined him and the practice became a tradition where Kennedy would deliver inspirational speeches with theological references.
In 2015 the Bremerton school district asked the coach to stop.
Since then, Kennedy has been praying alone and no longer leading group prayers with players and students.
Paul Clement, the attorney who argued the case on behalf of coach Kennedy, stated that the decision would allow the coach “to finally return to the place he belongs – coaching football and quietly praying by himself after the game.”
In a 6-3 ruling, the SCOTUS ruled that the public school district violated the coach’s right to free speech and free exercise rights when they barred him from praying on the football field’s 50-yard-line after games. –Floridian Press
What does this mean in practical terms?
The ruling contrasts with two precedents the Supreme Court issued in the 20th century that prohibited school-sanctioned prayers in the classroom and the reading of the Bible in public schools as part of the wall between church and state.
It also brings an end to the 1971 precedent Lemon v. Kurtzman, which created a test to gauge church-state separation policies in public schools. That case has been scorned by conservatives as biased against religious interests.
Courts have long used those precedents to rule on similar cases, so the Supreme Court’s ruling is likely to launch a pathway for new religious policies in public schools. — TheHill
The left is pretty inconsistent on their treatment of nearly identical actions.
When Tim Tebow bends his knee on the field in honor of Jesus Christ, the left seethed in general outrage. How DARE he! But let some Kapernick guy take a knee, not to honor God, or even someone else, but to make himself the center of attention … and they just can’t get enough.
The activist class really doesn’t like Christian faith, specifically, because Christianity has a whole series of truth claims that are in open conflict with the left’s political agenda.
The TV talking heads are outraged now over this decision — as with all the others — claiming that Christians will be forcing their religion down children’s throats.
These are the same secular leftists who insist that they have the right to override parental authority over children, by introducing age-inappropriate sexual concepts, and deliberately conditioning them to favorable views of the left’s favorite pet ideologies.
What the left doesn’t realize is that the longest word in the English Language, antidisestablishmentarianism, is an artifact from bygone days when the Federal government did not have an established ‘state religion’ but individual states absolutely did have particular Christian denominations as the official state religion.
There is no intrinsic right to be free from religious influence, just like there is no right to not be offended.
The left doesn’t know or doesn’t care that it has been pushing its own anti-faith secular position as a de facto dogma.
That semi-religious system is complete with its own Origins Story, moral code, understanding of life-after-death questions etcera. Heretics are punished without mercy for failing to abide by the code. Schoolkids, for instance, are punished for using the wrong pronoun.
Christianity is a rival system and, more importantly, it is the one the left seeks to supplant.
Now that SCOTUS has told them a coach has the right to pray in public, there’s no telling what other freedoms might be opened up in schools.
This could prove to be a big step backward for the left’s Long March through the Institutions.
Dear Christian: Your Fear Is Full of Crap
by Doug Giles
Beginning in March 2020, many Christians went into lockdown-freak-out mode.
They “socially distanced” themselves from corporate worship and from pretty much everyone and everything else, except, of course, liquor, and grocery stores.
Uncut, irrational, unbiblical, and not to mention, unconstitutional, fear gripped many churches and church leaders.
Should pastors publicly repent if they obeyed Fauci in regard to how they conducted their ministry instead of adhering to the clear commands of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
That’s a legit question, eh?
Get your copy of Dear Christian: Your Fear Is Full of Crap now. Better yet, grab an extra copy for any petrified pastor who dutifully put obedience to the unconstitutional edicts of Mayor McCheese ahead of obedience to the explicit commandments of the LORD God Almighty.
