• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

"Christians Furious After GA School Bans Loudspeaker Prayers at Football Games"

Bob the Unbeliever

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
Skwim said:
.​

View attachment 32883

"For years now, the football team at Lowndes High School in Georgia has opened its games with a student-led prayer, but after a complaint from an atheist group, those prayers are ending and the community is furious.

At least that’s what a couple of news headlines this week have suggested.

But they all miss a critical point: Even the Freedom From Religion Foundation doesn’t have a legal issue with student-led prayers. If the athletes and fans choose to pray before a game, that’s their right. But at Lowndes, the students use the loudspeaker system to preach Christianity.

Here’s an example of it from 2017:

That’s why FFRF had a problem with it, as attorney Chris Line pointed out when he sent the district a letter on behalf of a parent who lives in the community.


“I couldn’t go to the football game and say, ‘hey, there is no God,’ to everybody at the game, use the school’s microphone for that. In the same way that a Christian can not come up and deliver a Christian prayer for everyone when the crowd probably has Jewish people, Muslims, obviously atheists, and tons of other minority religions,” said Chris Line, Freedom From Religion Foundation Attorney.
​
It’s not just FFRF either. The Supreme Court ruled on this very issue in 2000 in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe and said the loudspeaker prayers were illegal.

And yet the response has included district officials blaming FFRF for the change, and locals whining because they’re too ignorant to understand the problem.


Prayer has “always been done, and we live in an area where God is put above a lot of other things,” [senior Taylor] Slocumb said. “To have it taken away from us, it’s something I wanted to fight for.”
…

“It’s time for Christians to stand up for what is right and to stand up for God,” [parent Joe] Copeland said. “When you quit talking to God, it’s going to go bad.”
…

“South Georgia is in the middle of the Bible Belt,” said Darrell Presley, the Viking Touchdown Club President. “Religion is a very strong thing in this part of the country and it’s one of the things that you do.”

Presley says if the prayer does not get added back to the program, fans will say their own from the crowd.
​
I’m no attorney, but Presley’s not very smart, so I’ll go ahead and say it with confidence: No one cares if the fans say their own prayers. No one is challenging their right to pray. Hell, they can pray to their hearts’ desires. Christian fans are free to turn the games into makeshift church services, and tell Jews they’re going to Hell unless they repent, and whatever else they want.

But they can’t use the school’s equipment to amplify their message. This isn’t that complicated.

Maybe if the fans spent more time in school and less time praying, they would realize that."
source


.​
Click to expand...


Here's the thing: There is a very legal way to get Public Prayers into Football games, over the Loud Speaker:

The announcer states, "We will now have a moment of Silence, for the benefit of the Players"

AND DO JUST THAT: A MOMENT OF SILENCE.

That way? All the Christians can pray to their god, that he will Smite The Other Players, and all the Jews can pray to their God to Not Challenge the local team too much, and all the Satanists can pray to their god, to bring a pox on all the opposing referees, and all the Flying Spaghetti Monsters can pray that the players be Touched By His Noodly Appendeges, and all the Native Americans can ask Raven to not be quite so tricksy today, and all the atheists can check their smart phones for unread messages, and so forth.*

WIN-WIN-WIN!

* If I missed anyone's god? So very sorry. Feel free to comment how you would pray to your god or gods or spirits or whatever.
 
SkepticThinker

SkepticThinker

Veteran Member
wellwisher said:
The left wing atheists has sanctuary cities that get to ignore federal law. This town in Georgia should claim they are a sanctuary city for free religious expression.The Government does not withhold federal funds or penalize the Californian cities who protect criminal aliens due to their sanctuary status. Use the same cheat tactics as the atheists and ignore the whiners.

Trump will back you, since any further fight that can change your sanctuary status, will also set a precedent that will allow Trump to come down hard on all atheists sanctuary cities. The atheists cannot have it both ways. This is how the binarius Satan is defeated. Time to draw a line in the sand and defeat the two faced serpent.
Click to expand...
On what planet are those located?
 
Sand Dancer

Sand Dancer

Crazy Cat Lady
Ouroboros said:
Maybe they can't do a good enough job keeping the churches alive without the gov. In countries where separation has gone further, churches have a harder time keeping the attendance.
Click to expand...

Actually in many places in Europe, they give churches government money, so then the churches stop proselytizing, and the only time people go is for weddings and funerals.
 
Jainarayan

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
KenS said:
Another blow to free speech
Click to expand...

I get so tired of hearing and seeing that. Free speech is not absolute. Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater, anyone? Or "Bombs away!" in an airport? Try it and see how far your "freedom of speech" goes. Go ahead, put it to the test. :rolleyes:
 
Jainarayan

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
Father Heathen said:
It's to test their and their family's faith. Weathering the trial will bring them closer together and closer to god. It's actually blessing is disguise, etc.
That's how they tend to rationalize/justify it.
Click to expand...

Like offering their suffering up to God, like Sister Mary Discipline of The Sisters of Lawd! Have Mercy taught?
 
Ouroboros

Ouroboros

Coincidentia oppositorum
wellwisher said:
The left wing atheists has sanctuary cities that get to ignore federal law. This town in Georgia should claim they are a sanctuary city for free religious expression.The Government does not withhold federal funds or penalize the Californian cities who protect criminal aliens due to their sanctuary status. Use the same cheat tactics as the atheists and ignore the whiners.
Click to expand...
Just to educate you a tiny bit. The majority of the immigrants from Mexico and south america are Catholics, not atheist, and there are plenty of churches in those cities too. They're far from atheist sanctuaries. Also, it might be interesting to you to know that it was a religious movement that started it.

"The movement that established sanctuary cities in the United States began in the early 1980s. The movement traces its roots to religious philosophy, as well as the histories of resistance movements to perceived state injustices.[18] The sanctuary city movement took place in the 1980's to challenge the US government’s refusal to grant asylum to certain Central American refugees.[19] These asylum seekers were arriving from countries in Central America like El Salvador and Guatemala that were politically unstable. More than 75,000 Salvadoreans and 200,000 Guatemalans were killed by their governments in efforts to suppress the communist movement in those countries at the time.[20] Faith based groups in the US Southwest initially drove the movement of the 1980's, with eight churches publicly declaring to be sanctuaries in March 1982.[21] John Fife, a minister and movement leader, famously wrote in a letter to Attorney General William Smith; "the South-side United Presbyterian Church will publicly violate the Immigration and Nationality Act by allowing sanctuary in its church for those from Central America."[22]"
-- wikipedia


--edit

Also, our current and the past democratic governor are Catholics, so it doesn't really fit to call them atheists.
 
Last edited:
Jainarayan

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
Ouroboros said:
Paul or Jesus (can't remember who) said that the Christians should rejoice when they were persecuted
Click to expand...

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" - Matthew 5:10.
 
Kenny

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Jainarayan said:
I get so tired of hearing and seeing that. Free speech is not absolute. Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater, anyone? Or "Bombs away!" in an airport? Try it and see how far your "freedom of speech" goes. Go ahead, put it to the test. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I don't think those are all apples. It would be more like me saying "YOU CAN'T POST WHAT YOU JUST POSTED" because it offended me.

This wasn't a "bomb" or a "fire" call. It was a student led prayer... quite legal.
 
Jainarayan

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
KenS said:
I don't think those are all apples. It would be more like me saying "YOU CAN'T POST WHAT YOU JUST POSTED" because it offended me.

This wasn't a "bomb" or a "fire" call. It was a student led prayer... quite legal.
Click to expand...

Not even a good try. Your comment was "Another blow to free speech" as if free speech is an absolute. I challenged that. Moreover, if it's a school- or state-sponsored event, it is indeed illegal.
 
Kenny

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Jainarayan said:
Not even a good try. Your comment was "Another blow to free speech" as if free speech is an absolute. I challenged that. Moreover, if it's a school- or state-sponsored event, it is indeed illegal.
Click to expand...

Never said free speech is an absolute. You are reading into it and forming an opinion about it being an absolute
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top