An Illinois grade school has banned prayers at graduation ceremonies.
Last year, Lisbon Grade School had invited a local youth ministry leader to deliver an invocation and a benediction for eighth graders.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation got wind of the prayers and fired off a threatening letter to the school district: “It was reported that Kari Friestad, who is a youth ministry coordinator at West Lisbon Church, delivered a Christian sermon before leading the audience in both a prayer as well as a religious benediction, blessing the students as they graduated. The content of her speech reportedly included direct references to Christian theology and was delivered in the tone and format of a sermon. Both the invocation and the later benediction were included in the graduation ceremony program, demonstrating that they were preplanned and school-sponsored.”
The FFRF is a radical atheist group based in Wisconsin that targets small school districts that still ascribe to the faith of our Founding Fathers.
The atheists said that graduation ceremonies must be free of what they called Christian divisiveness.
The school district replied that they would no longer allow prayers at graduation ceremonies.
The atheists accused the Christian youth leader of peppering her message with Christian theology – as if that is a bad thing.
“School officials may not invite a student, faculty member, clergy member or anyone else to give any type of prayer, invocation, benediction or sermon at a public school-sponsored event,” FFRF attorney Madeline Ziegler wrote to Superintendent William Pender.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court says that ministers are not allowed to deliver prayers or any other religious messages at public school gatherings. The Court ruled that such prayers violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
What a sad thing that Jesus is no longer welcome in our nation’s public schools. No wonder our taxpayer-funded classrooms have been turned into war zones.
Todd Starnes is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and host of The Todd Starnes Radio Show.
