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The American Center for Law and Justice says prayer is fundamental. Prayer is constitutional. But as the ACLJ knows, public prayer has been under attack for many years and is now under assault from the enemy like never before.
That’s why the ACLJ has amped up its efforts in the courts to defend and protect prayer as our American culture continues to become more defiant to the Bible and more anti-God as the end times get closer and closer.
“Angry atheists and anti-Christian extremists have long been abusing the federal court system, rushing to court claiming to be offended by some public display of prayer or exercise of religious liberty,” the ACLJ says. “But now we have the biggest opportunity to stop these abhorrent attacks on prayer and religious liberty once and for all at the Supreme Court.”
Earlier this year, a high school football coach Joe Kennedy won his Supreme Court case that was centered around prayer. Kennedy, who was fired in 2015 as an assistant at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Washington, for conducting post-game prayers with his team. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the school must reinstate Kennedy to his old job by March 2013, and the school district cannot interfere with or prohibit Kennedy from offering a prayer consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision. The school district cannot retaliate against Kennedy for “conduct that complies with the terms of the court order.”
Kennedy’s case became a landmark for religious freedom in America, and will be a precedent for similar cases going forward.
The ACLJ is now handling a case that defends public prayer, originating from Ocala, Florida. When a crime spree gripped the local community, a prayer vigil was organized and city officials, police and chaplains attended the event. Individuals who opposed prayer sued, and a federal court rule that the public prayer was unconstitutional.
The ACLJ is now taking the case to the Supreme Court.
“It’s offended observer and it has plagued our federal judiciary for years, improperly allowing anti-Christian forces to run to federal court and claim a constitutional crisis every time they see a public official in any way practice his or her Christian faith, such as praying or even the public recognition of our Judeo-Christian heritage as a nation, such as ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance,” the ACLJ says. “It’s high time we set the record straight.”
The ACLJ says it recently filed an appeal in a case where a juror was thrown out for prayer. It won the case.
“In court, we also defeated the radical left’s attempt to shut down churches during the pandemic,” the ACLJ says.
Pastor Doug Stringer, the founder and president of Somebody Cares International, told Charisma News that believers must avoid becoming “impotent” when it comes to public prayer, just to appease others who are against it.
“I have facilitated public prayer meetings for years, and we have come against these challenges that have opposed us,” Stringer says. “We must humble ourselves before God and pray in Scripture. When we do that, even those who oppose us will be the beneficiaries.
“Once we are told that we cannot come together in corporate prayer and worship, we will find ourselves in the midst of an implosion of the church. We will have been rendered impotent. Once we stop coming together in agreement in prayer, we will have become like cosmetic Christianity, a form of costume jewelry that has no luster or no value. Once we compromise the foundations of our faith, like corporate prayer, we lose our strength and the enemy wins. We need to invite God back into His own house.
“Remember, in the presence of God, He will change everything.”
The ACLJ says it will continue to fight for an individuals right to pray in public. The organization urges you to sign this petition to help it defend prayer at the Supreme Court.
“We cannot allow anti-Christian, anti-prayer forces to literally turn the Constitution on its head,” the ACLJ says. “The Founders (of America) intended the Establishment Clause to protect religious liberty, not squelch it. We must ensure it never does.
“We are filing a critical amicus brief at the Supreme Court to protect prayer. Take actions with us to protect prayer and religious liberty.” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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