OPINION:
Well, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is at it again.
Coaches and players at a Missouri high school held an after-game prayer session — and that prompted the atheists across the border in Madison, Wisconsin, to take offense, take up pen and paper, and shoot off a warning letter to Cameron School District officials.
Quit the praying — or we’ll sue.
“We ask that the district commence an investigation into the complaints alleged and take immediate action to stop any and all school-sponsored prayers or religious worship,” FFRF’s attorney Christopher Line wrote in an October letter.
Line also demanded to know how the school planned to “remedy this serious and flagrant violation of the First Amendment.”
FFRF blames head coach Jeff Wallace and assistant coach David Stucky of proselytizing.
But here’s the catch: The prayers were reportedly voluntary. And: even opposing team players participated. Moreover — nobody seems to have complained.
“Superintendent Dr. Matt Robinson responded to the Wisconsin-based group’s complaint, adding that the district has never received a complaint from anyone in the community,” Fox News wrote.
So why’s FFRF even involved?
Good question.
FFRF is simply trying to bully the school into stopping the kids and coaches from praying — as it’s wont to do.
In February, FFRF demanded a basketball coach, Rick Barnes, at the University of Tennessee cease and desist praying with students, calling his actions “proselytizing” and “unconstitutional.”
From the FFRF website: “Barnes has also taken his players to church.”
Imagine. The horror of it all.
But this is how FFRF makes its money.
“Oklahoma public school can’t promote religion in holiday concert, FFRF warns,” FFRF.org posted.
“That rotunda tree is pagan, not Christian symbol — reminds FFRF,” FFRF.org stated.
“FFRF urges Virginia public school to remove religious sign,” FFRF.org said.
Bullying, threatening, warning, intimidating, suing: It’s what FFRF does. It’s what FFRF will continue to do until all semblances of religion, particularly Christianity, are wiped from the public face of America. Total secularism or bust — that’s FFRF’s motto.
But remember: Stand up to a bully, and the bully flees.
Or, put another way: Resist the devil, and he will flee.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @ckchumley.
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