Time to pray to your overlord!
Some high school football players like to pray on the field together after games. They are totally allowed to do that. Bremerton High School, like many schools has a rule that teachers and faculty, coaches and the like, are not allowed to participate in those prayers. Those adults are totally allowed to pray on their own time. Not good enough for
assistant football coach Joe Kennedy:
Surrounded by members of his team, players from the rival Centralia High School and scores of supporters from Kitsap County and beyond, Bremerton High assistant coach Joe Kennedy knelt on the 50-yard line after Friday night’s game and prayed.
[...]
“Lord, I thank you for these kids and the blessing you’ve given me with them. We believe in the game, we believe in competition and we can come into it as rivals and leave as brothers.”
He said he never intended to become part of the controversy surrounding his postgame prayers, but had to stand up for his right to practice his faith when challenged by the school district.
The usual political suspects have
joined the fray. They're signing a letter of support.
Signers of the letter supporting assistant football coach Joe Kennedy include the two Republican co-chairs of the congressional prayer group, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Rep. Randy Forbes of Virginia
One member of Washington’s delegation, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Pasco, is among those signing the letter dated Tuesday to Bremerton School Superintendent Aaron Leavell and Bremerton High School Principal John Polm.
Unfortunately for those
unable to distinguish the need to separate church from state, they may have
awakened the dark lord himself!
Lilith Starr, chapter head for The Satanic Temple of Seattle, told KIRO Radio's Dori Monson that a student gave a formal request for a Satanic invocation on Tuesday morning. Starr said she wouldn't release the student's name, but that the Temple is in the planning stages of the event.
"We will be at Thursday's game doing a postgame Satanic invocation on the field if Coach (Joe) Kennedy continues to pray," she said. "We won't step on the field if he is stopped or doesn't pray."