Congressmen Back Suspended Coach with Letter of Support

A member of Congress is standing up for the football coach in Washington state who was suspended for praying on the field.
    
In a speech on the House floor, Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, denounced the Bremerton School District for violating Coach Joe Kennedy's religious rights.
 
The district put Kennedy on paid administrative leave after he refused to stop going to midfield and giving thanks to God after every game.

"According to the test the School District has suggested, any publically observable expression of faith by a government employee could be construed as endorsement of religion and therefore pose a concern," Forbes and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., wrote in an article on Fox News.
    
The district said his public prayers could be seen as an endorsement of religion.

"But how would this test apply in other circumstances?" Forbes and Lankford asked in their article. "Would it bar a government employee from silently bowing his or her head to pray over a meal or prohibit a Muslim teacher wearing a headscarf to school for fear these actions would be construed as an endorsement of religion?"

Dozens of other members of the Caucus sent a letter to the district supporting Coach Kennedy.

"This is about so much more than a single high school football coach in a small town in Washington state," Forbes and Lankford wrote.

"Protecting Coach Kennedy's freedom to choose to kneel quietly after the conclusion of a high school football game and pray, in a way which coerces no one, is something that all Americans should rally behind -- regardless of religion or political persuasion," the letter continued.

"Because by protecting one citizen's right to pray is protecting every citizen's right to pray. Standing up for one American's freedom is standing up for every American's freedom –- whether they are of any faith or no faith at all," they said.