Hundreds of people met at a town in Florida earlier this month to defend religious liberty after an atheist organization demanded that a local high school stop associating its football team with religion. The American Humanist Association sent a letter to the administration at Chestatee High School in Gainesville, Ga., threatening to sue them if their football coaches did not stop praying with the team and if religious messages were not removed from the team’s official documents.
Approximately 200 people assembled at the Chestatee Football Field on August 13 to protest against AHA’s letter.
“We have received reports that CHS coaches have joined players in prayer while standing in a circle, hands interlocked....A banner, written by cheerleaders, reads Iron Sharpens Iron, Proverbs 21:17 and that the team workout schedule references a verse in Galatians,” the letter stated.
Some conservative reports suggest that the entire football team is accommodating and accepting of the contentious prayer verses and nobody has a problem with the way things are.
“I am a mom of two of the football players on the CHS football team and I consider it an honor and a privilege to have my boys on a team that is led by men that believe and trust in God. I think it’s a shame for one person to try and take that away from them,” said one caller to a local radio station.
The school superintendent reassured the station that the claims would be looked into and the school administration would also ensure that they do not overreact.
“Unfortunately when school systems get letters like this and people start rattling sabers, usually the first reaction by a lot of school districts is, Oh my goodness, we don’t want to be in the news. We don’t want to be sued, so we better stop doing whatever we are doing. I don’t think that will be the first reaction of the Hall County School Board,” he said.
Congressman Doug Collins, a representative of the district, condemned AHA, saying the organization is trying to bully a group of high school students.
“It’s utterly disgusting that while innocent lives are being lost in Iraq and other places at the hands of radical religious terrorists, a bunch of Washington lawyers are finding the time to pick on kids in Northeast Georgia,” he said in a statement.
Photo Credit: Morris Technology
