Criminally charged for praying
The principal of Pace High School, Frank Lay, and Athletic Director Robert Freeman are facing fines and imprisonment on criminal contempt charges after violating a court injunction that forbids prayers by administrators at school functions.
The group that polices thought and language, that attacks individuals or organizations who they perceive to be intolerant because someone’s civil liberties interferes with someone else’s….or something like that….has been targeting this school.
Pace High School, locally known as “the Baptist Academy”, has a long history of promoting a Christian ethos for its students, where prayers during sporting events and other activities were common. The Pace High School teachers’ handbook asks teachers to “embrace every opportunity to inculcate, by precept and example, the practice of every Christian virtue.”
In June this year 400 graduating seniors at Pace High School stood up in protest against the ACLU instigated court order banning prayer and recited the Lord’s Prayer during their graduation ceremony. Many of the students also painted crosses on their graduation caps to make a statement of faith.
Liberty Counsel, a Christian-based legal advocacy group, has filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Christian Educators Association International to challenge what it claims is an “overreaching” consent order. “The order unconstitutionally infringes on the rights of teachers, administrators, and students,” the non-profit litigation organization argues.
“I have been defending religious freedom issues for 22 years, and I’ve never had to defend somebody who has been charged criminally for praying,” said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
Get used to it. The bully pulpit has been taken over.
