OPINION (Todd Starnes) – And that’s exactly what a group of high school football fans did the other day at Opelika High School in Alabama. The school district had replaced the traditional pre-game prayer with a moment of silence. The prayer was eliminated after a group of out-of-town atheists had complained. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based gang of atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers, sent a threatening letter to the school district. “It is illegal for a public school to sponsor religious messages at school athletic events
and for public school coaches to lead their teams in prayer,” FFRF attorney Christopher Line wrote to the school district. The school district responded by dropping the traditional prayer. “The Supreme Court has specifically struck down invocations given over the loudspeaker at public school athletic events, even when student-led,” Supt. Mark Neighbors said in a statement to the Opelika Observer. “Our students are allowed to pray, but our coaches are not allowed to participate.” READ MORE
Matthew 6:5, “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”