Nobody enjoys being sued. Being sued can cause good people to make weak decisions.
Groups opposed to God, prayer in schools and many other foundations of the America our founding fathers built have used that very fear to whittle away at religious freedom and rights for Americans that believe in God for far too long.
None of us are blameless in our inaction.
At this moment in time, we find ourselves as a nation and as a community at a cross-roads. If we continue to be gripped by the very fear of fighting for our beliefs and rights and continue to be afraid of being sued and fighting in the courts to defend what we believe, then the America our founding fathers built will be so further eroded that we will become a mere shell of what America was.
In the last week, the Jefferson County Board of Education had the opportunity to take a stand for our children and for the people of Gardendale and Jefferson County. An outside atheist group challenged this Board by attacking prayer across the PA system at Gardendale High School football games.
The response from the Board was weak. It merely offered support to those students and educators for their first amendment rights to pray.
Sadly, nothing was said in support or to defend the rights of our students, educators, and citizens to pray over a school-owned PA system at a high school football game as it has been done countless times over decades.
This is not a mere distinction.
Removing prayer from the school-owned PA system is a major victory for these kinds of groups. They use fear of lawsuits to make groups bend to their demands.
There is a time to fight. A time to be sued. A time to spend the million dollars it may take to defend our belief that we should pray to God over that PA system from that press box for every event at Driver Stadium.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Alabama Attorney General would take up the case and alleviate the legal bills to JEFCOED.
We need members of the Jefferson County Board of Education that will draw a line in the sand and say, “we are praying just like we always have and the same way we always have, and if you want to sue…then take your shot.”
That’s a Board of Education we can rally behind. That’s worth the legal fees.
This is a very important moment in time. This Board has the opportunity to take a stand in a defining moment for Jefferson County and our children.
This isn’t about legal fees and budgets. It’s about what the overwhelming majority of Gardendale and Jefferson County citizens want for our children, our schools and our communities, and it’s about a further erosion of centering God in our schools.
If this Board will fight, they will find an overwhelming majority of those in Jefferson County who will support them.
It’s in hands of the Board of Education.
It’s time to stop taking “legal” punches from these groups and start throwing some.
