Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Atheist group tells Georgia high school football team to punt the prayers
foxnews.com ^ | August 12, 2014 | Joshua Rhett Miller

Posted on 08/13/2014 4:32:10 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012

A Georgia high school football program may have God on its side, but not the Constitution, according to critics who say prayer and proselytization have no place in the playbook.

Football coaches at Chestatee High School in Gainesville are accused of quoting scripture on team documents and pre-game banners and regularly leading the War Eagles in prayer in a religious blitz the American Humanist Association (AHA) declares unconstitutional.

“There’s really no defense for doing this,” AHA attorney Monica Miller told FoxNews.com. “It’s not even solely student prayer — it’s teachers and coaches praying with students. And we have reason to believe it’s not an isolated event.”

Miller, whose organization sent a letter Tuesday threatening to sue Hall County Schools, said a “concerned citizen” notified the national nonprofit group that the 1,200-student school in Gainesville, about 55 miles northeast of Atlanta, appeared to be doing an end run around the First Amendment. The letter demanded that coaches cut team-sanctioned prayers and remove all Bible verses and other religious messages from team documents and materials.

The group was particularly outraged that outgoing Head Coach Stan Luttrell joined players as they held hands and prayed.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-49 next last

1 posted on 08/13/2014 4:32:10 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

since she is not part of the team, does she have standing to bring such a law suit?


2 posted on 08/13/2014 4:34:32 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

Tell the atheist to go watch some soccer team.


3 posted on 08/13/2014 4:39:11 AM PDT by b4its2late (A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bert

Just punt Monica Miller and the problem is solved. She is just another socialist liberal busy body with a nose much larger than her portraits depict.

Monica Miller is the Legal Working Group Leader of the Nonhuman Rights Project. She graduated from Pitzer College in 2008 and from Columbia University in 2009 with a Masters in Public Administration for Environmental Science and Policy. She graduated cum laude from Vermont Law School in 2012.

In college, Monica founded the Pitzer Animal Welfare Society, and in law school she served as co-chair of the Animal Law Society. She also created the “Veg Pledge” program at Vermont Law School, which encourages student groups to go vegetarian throughout the school year. Monica was a Dean’s Fellow at Vermont Law School where she taught first-year legal writing. She was a semi-finalist in the 2012 Animal Law Moot Court Competition.

In pursuit of her concern for civil rights and constitutional law, Monica also works at the American Humanist Association, assisting in First Amendment rights and constitutional equality litigation.


4 posted on 08/13/2014 4:39:20 AM PDT by mazda77 (http://www.rymanshoaf.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

I wish some of these self-described “concerned citizens” actually cared about our country going rapidly out of business.


5 posted on 08/13/2014 4:44:01 AM PDT by madprof98
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bert

They rarely need to actually file the suit. Just the threat sends Christians scurrying and they bow down and says “okay, you win”.

How “Christian” is it to not stand up for what you say you believe in?


6 posted on 08/13/2014 4:47:29 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: mazda77

Gee Whiz.

Another brilliant, intellectual, caring, inclusive, loving, really-really smart Progressive activist protecting the world from knuckle-dragging, ignorant, moronic, bible-thumping, gun-loving Christians.

/s/

IMHO


7 posted on 08/13/2014 4:48:23 AM PDT by ripley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: mazda77

does she get paid for all that nonsense?


8 posted on 08/13/2014 4:49:44 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

these heathens are out of control much like judges


9 posted on 08/13/2014 4:49:44 AM PDT by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bert

Most likely not. She is paving her way to the hallowed halls of Progressiveness and just now paying her dues. Just another brainless book smart dolt who missed the important half of the clause about freedom of religion; “or the free exercise thereof”.


10 posted on 08/13/2014 4:52:59 AM PDT by mazda77 (http://www.rymanshoaf.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012
"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."

I always like how they miss the "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" portion.

11 posted on 08/13/2014 4:56:41 AM PDT by cincinnati65
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

Hating God, what a way to spend your day. These people live as though they will never die.


12 posted on 08/13/2014 4:56:48 AM PDT by reefdiver (The fool says there is no God. And the bigger fools sees direct evidence and rages against it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

Aside from being the basis of more than one religion, isn’t the Bible also a great source, generally, of ancient wisdom and philosophy? Can’t someone be quoting it in that context?

After all, if I started the Church of Socrates, and I considered him to be a deity and all the writing of Socrates to be my scriptures, then would the Atheists or any other group be able to ban having his writings quoted in schools on that basis?


13 posted on 08/13/2014 4:58:03 AM PDT by zencycler
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

I’m really tired of all these anti-religion groups AND various judges not understanding the first amendment!

The so-called ‘separation of church and state’ means the Government cannot establish a religion via law/dictate that is the religion of the country. That was to forebade anything like the Church of England that existed under George III and permit citizens to practice their own religions.

What will it take to slap silly these activist judges that ignore the meaning of the Constitution?


14 posted on 08/13/2014 4:58:21 AM PDT by octex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

What should happen is AHA files a suit and a judge dismisses it as frivolous. At least that’s the way things are supposed to work here in America.


15 posted on 08/13/2014 4:59:22 AM PDT by lakecumberlandvet (Appeasement never works.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cincinnati65

And also, and perhaps most importantly, it begins “”Congress shall make no law...”.

So in other words, it’s all about what Congress WILL NOT do, not about what that WILL do.


16 posted on 08/13/2014 5:01:49 AM PDT by zencycler
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

If she had gone against the Muzzies for doing this she would have had her head chopped off by now.


17 posted on 08/13/2014 5:06:34 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

If they were true atheists, they wouldn’t care.


18 posted on 08/13/2014 5:07:48 AM PDT by Hoodat (Article 4, Section 4)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: manc
Atheism is a religion.

This lawyer, this group is forcing the school to promote Atheism, a religion.

That is in violation of the First Amendment.

19 posted on 08/13/2014 5:12:20 AM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim ("Your apathy is their power." - Sarah Palin Jul 19, 2014)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

I think this sucks and I’m an Atheist. I see no harm at all in these traditions. It’s a mind your own business thing all the way.


20 posted on 08/13/2014 5:20:20 AM PDT by strider44
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-49 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson