Freedom to Pray Under Attack as Supreme Court Hears Kennedy v Bremerton School District Case
Friday, April 29, 2022
NEW YORK - Recently, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Kennedy v Bremerton School District, a case that involves the firing of a high school football coach because he offered brief, quiet prayers after football games. The issue is if government run schools can prohibit such personal prayers given the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment admonition: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
Metropolitan Gregory, Secretary of the Assembly of Bishops, stated, “one of the most critical and repeated instructions from our Lord was to pray. He modeled this essential behavior constantly, and even provided the Lord’s Prayer as one beautiful model in Matthew 6:9-13.
Having just completed the prayerful time of Holy and Great Lent, we fervently urge all people to embrace the restorative power of prayer. Particularly as the right to pray is openly under attack as part of a larger assault on Religious Freedom.”
In the face of today’s increasingly secular antagonism toward religion and the personal freedom to pray, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America fervently urges all people of faith to remember our Lord’s call to pray constantly, with courage, and without fear of condemnation (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).