(Freedom.news) The politically correct authoritarians have claimed another victim.
As reported by The Associated Press, Joe Kennedy, an assistant high school football coach at the Bremerton (Washington) School District, was suspended by school officials after defying district directives forbidding personnel from engaging in overt, public religious displays.
Kennedy’s high crime was praying at games. For this, he was placed on administrative leave.
“Kennedy has vocally engaged in pregame and postgame prayers, sometimes joined by students, since 2008. But the practice recently came to the district’s attention, and it asked him to stop,” The AP reported.
Initially, Kennedy agreed to the ban. However, after gaining support from the Texas-based Liberty Institute, a group that focuses primarily on support for religious freedom, he resumed his practice of postgame prayer, taking a knee silently for 15 to 20 seconds at midfield after he shook hands with opposing coaches. His attorneys have said he isn’t forcing anyone else – students especially – to join him; he’s just doing it on his own, as he believes he has a First Amendment right to do.
School officials obviously disagree, however.
“While the district appreciates Kennedy’s many positive contributions to the BHS football program, and therefore regrets the necessity of this action, Kennedy’s conduct poses a genuine risk that the District will be liable for violating the federal and state constitutional rights of students or others. For this reason, Kennedy will not be allowed to further violate the District’s directives,” the statement said.
That “risk” is not identified specifically, but apparently the school has no problem with violating Kennedy’s constitutional rights.
But Kennedy does have backers, and some are in high places. In an op-ed posted at FoxNews.com, U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, said Kennedy and others ought to be free to pray where they want, just as Congress can.
They wrote that “among the most basic rights that Americans enjoy are the free exercise of religion, free speech, and the freedom of association. These are safeguarded in our Constitution. However, nowhere does the Constitution prohibit the government or government employees from referencing religion altogether, nor does it require that government officials proactively scrub all references of religion from the public square.
“This is about so much more than a single high school football coach in a small town in Washington State. Protecting Coach Kennedy’s freedom to choose to kneel quietly after the conclusion of a high school football game and pray, in a way which coerces no one, is something that all Americans should rally behind — regardless of religion or political persuasion,” they continued.
“Because by protecting one citizen’s right to pray, is protecting every citizens right to pray. Standing up for one American’s freedom is standing up for every Americans freedom – whether they are of any faith or no faith at all.”
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