Supreme Court Ruling On 1st Amendment And Public Prayer At High School Football Games

Thanks be to God! The wins courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) keep coming!

Today, it was a Supreme Court ruling on the 1st Amendment and the issue of public prayer at a Public High School football game.

Here's Liberty Counsel Lawyer, Harry Mihet, commenting on this exciting news...

Another day brings another GREAT VICTORY at the Supreme Court! This morning the High Court held that a Washington school district violated Coach Kennedy’s First Amendment rights when it FIRED him for praying on the football field AFTER football games. The Court relied on its recent holding from our Boston flag case to hold that Coach Kennedy’s prayers were his own, PRIVATE speech, not the Government’s speech. (DUH!) Public School employees do not shed their rights as private citizens at the schoolhouse gate, and are FREE to engage in their own private speech at appropriate times. Schools CANNOT censor private speech just because it is religious, EVEN IF SOME SNOWFLAKES ARE OFFENDED by seeing religious expression in the public square. 

This case, like our Boston flag case, was critically important to beating back the aggressive push by secularists to confine religious expression INSIDE the four walls of the Church, and to evict God from the public square. The High Court has reaffirmed the fundamental right of people of faith to practice their faith not only inside the Church, but also in their daily life outside of Church. 

Here is a beautiful excerpt from the Supreme Court’s ruling, that showcases how BLESSED we are to have a Supreme Court that is so committed to protecting Religious Liberty in the public square: 

"Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic—whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head. Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a brief, quiet, personal religious observance doubly protected by the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment. And the only meaningful justification the government offered for its reprisal rested on a mistaken view that it had a duty to ferret out and suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech. The Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination. Mr. Kennedy is entitled to summary judgment on his First Amendment claims." 

Praise God for ANOTHER monumental victory. 

Freedom is marching on, despite ongoing efforts to eradicate it! 

Soli Deo Gloria!

Yes, this is ANOTHER monumental victory for Christians in this country!

You can read the Liberty Counsel's official Press Release "SCOTUS Rules In Favor of Coach Kennedy" for more on this story.

For now, I'll end with these comments from a Lutheran Pastor...

"People are whining that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Coach who prayed after a football game. They argue that this would not be permitted if he weren’t a Christian. 

The reality is that non-Christian prayers are offered all the time in government contexts: by Military Chaplains, at Town Hall Meetings, and even in the Halls of Congress itself. 

Those who believe in no religion at all simply want to dominate everyone else. 

If someone offers a prayer I don’t agree with -- which sometimes happens -- I listen respectfully, but don’t participate and I don’t reply with an 'Amen.' It’s really not a problem. 

That is what religious liberty and tolerance mean. That is how you deal with diversity -- not shutting everyone up. You have no Constitutional right not to hear someone else pray or confess a religious belief." 

-- Pastor Larry Beane

In a Lutheran layman's terms, "When God-fearing laws are set in motion over a godless society, rebellion is usually the result. ... Laws can curb behavior, but it is the Gospel which can change hearts and minds" wrote Pastor Ben Eder.

AMEN!



NOTE: Please understand that I'm not a called and ordained minister of God's Word and Sacraments. I'm a layman or just your average everyday Christian, Corporate Healthcare Recruiting Manager, Husband, Father, Friend who lives in the "City of Good Neighbors" here on the East Coast in Buffalo, NY. As another Christian Blogger once wrote, "Please do not see this blog as me attempting to 'publicly teach' the faith, but view it as 'an informal Public Journal of sorts' about my own experiences and journey." So if any of my notes here help you in any way at all, then I say, "Praise the Lord! Thanks be to God!" but please do double check them against the Word of God and with your own Pastor at all times. Trust, but always verify. To be more specific, and relevant to the point I want to make with this lengthy disclaimer/note, please understand that I'm a relatively new convert to "Confessional Lutheranism" and one who recently escaped an American-Evangelical-Non-Denominational mindset a little more than 9 years ago now despite being a Christian my whole life. That being said, please contact me ASAP if you're a Lifelong Lutheran who believes that any of my "old beliefs" seem to have crept their way back into any of the material you see published here, and especially if any of the content is inconsistent with the Bible, our Confessions, and Lutheran doctrine in general (in other words, if it's not consistent with God's Word, which our Confessions merely summarize and repeatedly point us back to over and over again) so that I can not only correct those errors immediately and not lead any of His little ones astray (James 3:1), but so that I can also repent of my sin and learn the whole truth myself. With that in mind, please be aware that you might also discover that some of the earlier/older pieces I wrote for this blog back in 2013 definitely fall into that "Old Evangelical Adam" category (and they don't have a disclaimer like this) since I was a "Lutheran-In-Name-Only" at the time and was completely oblivious to the fact that a Christian "Book of Concord" even existed (Small/Large Catechism? What's that!?!). This knowledge of the Lutheran B-A-S-I-C-S was completely foreign to me even though I was baptized, confirmed, and married in an LCMS church! So, there are some entries that are a little more "out there" so-to-speak since the subject matter was also heavily influenced by those old beliefs of mine. I know that now and I'm still learning. Anyway, I decided to leave those published posts up on this website and in cyberspace only because they are not blasphemous/heretical demanding I correct them or take them down entirely, but because I now have this disclaimer, and only to demonstrate the continuing and sanctifying work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in my life from then until now (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 1:6). Most importantly, please know that any time I engage in commenting on and/or interpreting a specific portion of the Holy Scriptures, it will always closely follow the verse-by-verse footnotes from my own Lutheran Study Bible and/or include references to the Book of Concord unless otherwise noted. Typically, I will defer to what other Lutheran Pastors both past and present have already preached and taught about such passages too since they are the called and ordained under-shepherds of our souls here on earth. Finally, I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the length of most entries (this disclaimer/note is a perfect example of what I mean by that! haha). I'm well aware that blogs should be short, sweet, and to the point, but I've never been one to follow the rules when it comes to writing. Besides, this website is more like a "Christian Dude's Diary" in the sense that everything I write about and share publicly isn't always what's "popular" or "#Trending" at the time, but is about all the things that I'm studying or thinking about myself at the moment instead. For better or for worse, these posts tend to be much longer than most blog entries you'll find elsewhere only because I try to pack as much info as possible into a single piece so that I can refer to it again and again over time if I need to (and so that it can be a valuable resource for others -- if possible, a "One-Stop-Shop" of sorts where I've done all the research for you already to help save you valuable time). Thank you for stopping by and thank you in advance for your time, help, and understanding. Feel free to comment/email me at any time. Grace and peace to you and yours!