TRI In The News
At Issue: Pre-Game Prayer
From One News Now
Original article available here
The Rutherford Institute is advising officials at a Texas school against banning all prayers before football games because of the threat of a lawsuit.
Rutherford president John Whitehead is urging Bowie High School officials to respect student-led prayers before the games. He says the El Paso (Texas) school has recently come under fire for having Pastor Alfredo Sanchez lead the team in pre-game prayer.
"A YouTube video hit the Internet, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation saw it and wrote a very, very strong, threatening letter saying that religion is not allowed at all in public schools, that the school needs to secularize its functions," Whitehead details.
Even though the Establishment Clause limits government-sponsored religious speech, he points out that student-led religious speech is fully protected under the First Amendment. So while pastors cannot lead pre-game prayers, student-led prayers are constitutionally permissible.
"A lot of school officials know nothing about what they can or can't do in terms of religion in schools," the attorney notes. "And another thing -- they're easily intimidated by lawsuits. But I think they have a good ground to stand on legally if they say student-led religious speech and exercises in the schools are fine."
So The Rutherford Institute has sent a letter to the high school principal, Dr. Jesus Chavez, to let him know that there are viable options available to those who wish to exercise their First Amendment rights within schoolhouse gates. He even cites the guidelines from the Department of Education on "Prayer in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools."
The Freedom from Religion Foundation is a Wisconsin-based organization that claims to promote the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
