Supreme Court has no real right to rule on prayer

OPINION:

The U.S. Supreme Court is due to hear at the end of this month a widely reported case of a high school football coach who was forced from his job after he refused an administrative order to stop praying on the field at the end of games.

The crime of praying. In America? In a nation founded on a quest for religious freedom, forged on the principles of the Judeo-Christian belief system and both rooted in and raised to a state of exceptionalism on a concept of individual rights coming from God, not government — is there really such a thing as a crime of praying?

This is how far America has strayed from its foundations.

This is how far the secularist, humanist, atheist loons of the left have managed to transform the society from rugged individualism, based on God-given liberties, into obedient collectivism, driven by government commands.

Joseph Kennedy began his coaching position in 2008 at Bremerton High School in Washington. He began offering prayers post-game for players and coaches alike at a midfield point where they would voluntarily gather, shake hands, and in a spirit of commonality, give thanks for the competition, for the safety of players, for sportsmanlike conduct and so forth.

Nobody minded.

Nobody complained.

Then school administrators caught wind of what he was doing and sent him a stern warning about policy that said staff couldn’t encourage students to engage in religious activity — that is to say, then pinheaded bureaucrats in the district ran like frightened sheep from the possibility that someone might sue, so they knee-jerked and intimidated the coach into stifling his prayers. Yes, knee-jerked. They could’ve rallied behind the coach; they could’ve stood tall on the principles of free speech, free assembly, freedom of worship, freedom in America — or just common sense: The prayers, after all, were voluntary. Vol.Un.Tear.Ee. 

But in bureauspeak — the language, obviously, of these Washington school administrators — the logic goes like this: Christians are so much easier to shut up than, say, an angry atheist who might come along and make a call to the, oh, say, Freedom From Religion Foundation or to the, hmm, perhaps, American Civil Liberties Union, and then join forces and launch a lawsuit that will entangle the school in legal battles, in costly legal battles, in expensive, ugly, well-publicized legal battles for months and even years to come. School administrators hate that. School administrators will do whatever it takes to avoid these scenarios.

So they go the path of perceived least resistance.

They expect that Christians won’t fight. They expect that Christians will go quietly into that good night. They expect that Christians will do the Christian thing and bow quietly to the authorities in the government — the authorities, after all, that the Bible teaches were put in place by God. What Would Jesus Do, and all that good stuff. 

Christians don’t fight. 

Atheists, on the other hand, do.

That logic? That’s been pretty much the battlefield in America for years now.

And here’s the thing: That’s why America’s been facing so much peril from the left in recent years. That logic has worked in bureaucrats’ favor. Bureaucrats have expected Christians, by and large, to stifle and stay quiet and go away because Christians, by and large, with few exceptions, have done just that.

America has come to the point where the path of least resistance has become the one that gives atheists more power and authority than Christians, than Bible believers, than those of faith.

In a country built on “God-given,” that won’t do.

This Supreme Court case is the eye of America’s storm. If justices rule one way, it’s the underscore and recognition of all that’s great about America — of all that America is — of all that keeps this country rooted in freedom. If justices rule another way, it’s the end of all that America is — of all that makes America, America. Think about it.

But think about this, also. Either way, the fact that this case is at the highest court in the land is a clanging bell for believers.

If freedom to worship is a human right, if freedom of religious worship is a constitutional right, if America is a country where rights come from God — the right of a coach to pray on public school grounds does not even belong in the hands of the court, of any court, to debate. The government should not even have a say.

Once upon a time, we all agreed. Now we don’t. And that is making all the difference.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.