Last month an organization of anti-Christian extremists began pushing around a small town Alabama high school, threatening lawsuits if administrators didn’t stop the community from praying at the stadium before football games.
Last Friday night that community pushed back.
Hewitt-Trussville High School students wore “Stand Up for Prayer” t-shirts while reciting the Lord’s Prayer shortly before kickoff against Florence High School.
“I pray that you would protect the players and everybody here tonight. I pray that as we stand here as one group we would proclaim, Our Father…,” a student can be heard saying over Hewitt-Trussville Stadium’s public address system before the community joined in unison.
Students organized the invocation without administrator or teacher involvement, according to the Trussville Tribune.
This was a bold and courageous response to the aggressively litigious Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Wisconsin-based group that’s dedicated to stamping out all public displays of faith in our nation. It sent a letter to Trussville City School System last month after learning about the tradition of student-led prayer at the stadium, calling it inappropriate, illegal and unconstitutional.
“The district must take immediate action to end the practice of broadcasting prayer over the loudspeaker at football games,” wrote the foundation’s lawyer. “Please inform us of the steps the district is taking to remedy this serious violation of the First Amendment.”
Most superintendents and local school boards immediately surrender after the group threatens their system with lawsuits.
Not in Trussville. The Huskies aren’t 10-0 in 7A football because their community doesn’t stand up for itself.
“The response on Friday spoke volumes as nothing in the pregame format changed from the previous home football games,” the local newspaper reported. “In fact, the only variation was a louder prayer when a large number of students joined in.”
Go Huskies!
Keep letting your Friday night “lights” shine!
Pepper Bryars is the editor of Yellowhammer News and the author of “American Warfighter.” Follow him on Twitter @jpepperbryars.
