A high school coach returns to the game on the first of September after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of his First Amendment right to pray on the football field.
Joe Kennedy, a twenty-year Marine veteran and assistant coach for the Bremerton High School (BHS) football team in Bremerton, Washington, was suspended in 2015 for his custom of taking a knee and praying midfield after games to offer thanks, whether his team won or lost.
The school district’s lawyers took issue with his ceremony of seven years and warned that if he didn’t stop, he’d be suspended, but Mr. Kennedy wouldn’t be deterred.
“As a Marine veteran who fought in the first Gulf War, it really rubbed me the wrong way because I served 20 years to support and defend the Constitution,” Mr. Kennedy told The Epoch Times. “Now, I’m being told it doesn’t apply to me. There’s something fundamentally wrong with that. If I can’t express my First Amendment rights as an American, imagine what they are doing to everybody else.”
Though it would have been easier to comply, Mr. Kennedy said that’s essentially what’s wrong with society today.
“Nobody wants to take a stand,” he said. “Well, I wasn’t going to just sit back and let them demolish my rights.”
Inspired by the Christian film “Facing the Giants,” Mr. Kennedy started coaching in 2008.
“Just like in the movie, I gave the glory to God after every game, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I would be at the 50-yard line and take a knee to thank God.”
Separation of Church and State Questioned
According to First Liberty Institute (FLI), the religious freedom legal organization that represented Mr. Kennedy, the school district lawyers had concluded that Mr. Kennedy’s prayer violated school policy prohibiting religious activity intermingled with student activities and decided further that such activity “should be non-demonstrative.”
Mr. Kennedy had been offering motivational speeches to the students who gathered for prayer after the game.
“Those speeches sometimes included religious content and a short prayer, but he never coerced, required, or asked any student to pray or told any student that it was important that they participate in any religious activity,” FLI said.
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