Good news to relay about the football prayer controversy at DeSoto County High School in Mississippi: after a meeting of school board officials, a very sensible decision has been made to follow the county's existing policy and disallow prayer over the loudspeaker before games. It sounds like they knew this day would come whenever someone finally noticed:
"I know that [the Freedom From Religion Foundation] have sent similar letters to numerous other (school) districts in Tennessee and Mississippi, so I was not surprised when we received the letter," [school board attorney Keith] Treadway said. "I was expecting something at some point. I didn't know if it would be this year or next year."
School officials were initially guarded in their response, saying they would discuss it at Monday's meeting. After more than 90 minutes in executive session, which is not open to the media, Treadway emerged with the district's existing policy.
"Our policy is not to have prayers at football games," Treadway said.
Meanwhile, Kentucky's Bell County High School also just dropped a prayer-before-football tradition after receiving a letter from FFRF.
Naturally, townspeople in both cases who had grown accustomed to the prayer are upset. But, thy should re-think their disappointment. It's a good thing that school officials are not allowed to use the megaphone of the government to broadcast their religious views – or promote the majority religion. This prohibition is not only mindful of the many in attendance who likely follow different religious beliefs. It also protects the sanctity of prayer, and leaves such a personal religious exercise free of coercion. Each believer should be free to approach God on his or her own terms, without a public address announcer, or the social pressures of a community gathering.
And none of these basic religious liberty safeguards threaten prayer in the slightest. Everyone in attendance is free to pray on their own – before, during, and after the game. Pray with your family in the car on the way, huddle up with like-minded folks in the stands, or bow your head and pray on your own in the bleachers. God can hear you just fine. My understanding is loudspeakers don't help. In fact, who knows, all that piety may be a bit of a turn-off…
