Federal Judge Prohibits Prayer at Texas Graduation Ceremony

[Vince]

Really makes me angry!

By Todd Starnes
Published June 02, 2011
| FoxNews.com


A federal judge has ordered a Texas school district to prohibit public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony.
Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery’s order against the Medina Valley Independent School District also forbids students from using specific religious words including “prayer” and “amen.”
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christa and Danny Schultz. Their son is among those scheduled to participate in Saturday’s graduation ceremony. The judge declared that the Schultz family and their son would “suffer irreparable harm” if anyone prayed at the ceremony.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the school district is in the process of appealing the ruling, and his office has agreed to file a brief in their support.
“Part of this goes to the very heart of the unraveling of moral values in this country,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told Fox News Radio, saying the judge wanted to turn school administrators into “speech police.”

“I’ve never seen such a restriction on speech issued by a court or the government,” Abbott told Fox News Radio. “It seems like a trampling of the First Amendment rather than protecting the First Amendment.”
Judge Biery’s ruling banned students and other speakers from using religious language in their speeches. Among the banned words or phrases are: “join in prayer,” “bow their heads,” “amen,” and “prayer.”
He also ordered the school district to remove the terms “invocation” and “benediction” from the graduation program.
“These terms shall be replaced with ‘opening remarks’ and ‘closing remarks,'” the judge’s order stated. His ruling also prohibits anyone from saying, “in [a deity’s name] we pray.”
Should a student violate the order, school district officials could find themselves in legal trouble. Judge Biery ordered that his ruling be “enforced by incarceration or other sanctions for contempt of Court if not obeyed by District official (sic) and their agents.”
The Texas attorney general called the ruling unconstitutional and a blatant attack from those who do not believe in God -- “attempts by atheists and agnostics to use courts to eliminate from the public landscape any and all references to God whatsoever.”
“This is the challenge we are dealing with here,” he said. “(It’s) an ongoing attempt to purge God from the public setting while at the same time demanding from the courts an increased yielding to all things atheist and agnostic.”
Ayesa Khan, an attorney representing the student and his parents, told KABB-TV she was delighted in the judge’s decision.
“It caused him a great deal of anxiety,” she said, referring to her teenage client. “He has gone to meet with the principal to try and talk in a civilized way about long-standing problems, and the school district has continued to thumb its nose.”
The judge did grant students permission to make the sign of the cross, wear religious garb or kneel to face Mecca. But that’s not good enough for some students at the high school.
“It’s just a big surprise that one kid can come in and change what’s been a tradition since Medina Valley started,” student Abigail Russell told KABB-TV.
Fellow student Alicia Jade Geurin agreed.
“At graduation, I would love to be able to speak from my heart,” she told the TV station. “But in this situation I feel my freedom of speech and my First Amendment is being infringed upon if I can’t say what I feel.”
But the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, hailed the judge’s decision.
“This is a high school graduation,” he told Fox News Radio. “It is not a church service.”
Lynn was critical of the attorney general’s allegation that the ruling was an attempt to purge Christianity from the public square.
“Any attorney general worth his salt would know that’s the issue and that this is not about promoting atheism,” he said. “That’s ludicrous.”

[YeuEmMaiMai]

Satan through godless men is stripping our freedoms away one at a time so when the end comes, it will be easy for him to deceive many.......because now when they have the chance to save our feedoms, they failed themselves

[mattfivefour]

Sadly we see men who claim to be Christian ministers supporting this ungodly decision as being just and right! (Though I am not surprised that one of them is a prominent UCC minister.)

[WKUHilltopper]

This idiot judge can't tell them what they can or can't say. I'd do it anyway. Let call out the Blackhawks and strafe the crowd--if the Judge can do that, which he can't. Time to start standing up to these thugs or bow down to them.

[mattfivefour]

This idiot judge can't tell them what they can or can't say. I'd do it anyway. Let call out the Blackhawks and strafe the crowd--if the Judge can do that, which he can't. Time to start standing up to these thugs or bow down to them.

[Mike RB]

"God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power" (2 Tim. 1:7).

When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men..."

Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren;

“Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel”.

[micah719]

Isn't there some kind of law over there that prohibits any compulsion in religion, for or against? Has the tree of freedom withered for lack of nourishment, or is it putting forth malignant shoots?

[SonSeeker]

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It's time this judge read the Constitution. He has absolutely no right whatsoever to prohibit the free exercise of religion, or to abridge the freedom of speech.

Since this is a clear violation of the First Amendment, I'd say what was in my heart at the graduation and let the chips fall.

[readytogo]

Before this goes too far:

Federal Court Lifts Ban on Public Prayer at Texas High School Graduation After Uproar

A federal appeals court has lifted the order banning public prayer at a Texas high school graduation Saturday.

The reversal comes on the heels of increasing criticism of a federal judge's earlier ruling that agreed with the parents of one graduating student that religious expression during the ceremony at Medina Valley Independent School District would cause "irreparable harm" to their son.

Federal Court Lifts Ban on Public Prayer at Texas High School Graduation After Uproar - FoxNews.com

[WKUHilltopper]

How nice of them to allow the serfs to pray. Now they can take a flying leap. You don't have to put up with this nonsense.

[GaryM]

It used to be that anyone could say what was on their mind without fear of reprisal. Now, with all of the special interest groups and special classes of individuals, we are not as free as we used to be.

I seriously doubt that the plaintiffs would have suffered "irreparable harm" if a student prayed. Give me a break.

[Suzanne]

What happened to just not participating in something if you don't agree with it? If the teenager in question doesn't want to pray, couldn't he just stand quietly while those who wanted to pray did so? The same thing should be done when someone doesn't want his/her child to say the 'Pledge Of Allegiance'. I don't believe that one person has the right to change an activity that the majority wants to be involved in.

[MikeD]

"...would cause "irreparable harm" to their son."

And on the day this young student faces Jesus Christ for judgement. the "irreparable harm" will be OBVIOUSLY noticed FOR ETERNITN!! Sadly, this is one aspect of what's being done that will never be discussed nor even be considered by the "politically correct" crowd.