Atheist organization the Freedom From Religion Foundation thought they won a victory when they prevented a coach at a Georgia high school from conducting a time of prayer before football games, but their actions against the coach have backfired.
The FFRF initially sent a letter to the Coweta County School System, making them aware that the coach’s activities allegedly violated the U.S. Constitution because public school officials are not allowed to “further personal religious beliefs by leading their teams in prayer.
The school district complied with the FFRF’s demands, telling school officials that “representatives of the school cannot participate in any student initiated/student-led prayer or other worship while acting in their official capacity. For instance, they cannot join hands, bow their heads, take a knee or commit another act that otherwise manifests approval with the students’ religious exercise, at least where it would be perceived by a reasonable observer to display government endorsement of religion.”
Upon learning of this, Coweta County students doubled down on the prayer effort. Since the FFRF cannot do anything about the students themselves leading a time of prayer, the students came out in full force to support their religious freedom rights.
“Instead of it being 100 players praying, it turned into 400 students praying,” stated John Small, Coweta’s football coach, as reported by The Christian Post. “That’s their right, and we are going to support them in that.”
“It has really turned into a positive because at the end of the day, we are trying to teach students about leadership, and they should be the ones taking the charge on it anyway,” Small added, according to TheBlaze.com.
Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Publication date: November 15, 2017
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