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Bratt Pastor Reacts To ACLU Lawsuit Over Prayer At School Events
August 28, 2008
A Bratt pastor is speaking out about the ACLU’s lawsuit against the Santa Rosa County Schools for holding prayer at school events, including baccalaureate ceremonies.
The ACLU has also requested records of all prayers at graduation and baccalaureate ceremonies in Escambia County, including Northview High School.
The Northview Class of 2008 voted on the speaker for their baccalaureate service last May. They chose Gary Wieborg, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Bratt.
Here is what Pastor Wieborg had to say Wednesday night about the ACLU lawsuit:
“The ACLU may attempt and even be successful at ending the freedom Christian parents and students in Escambia and Santa Rosa County Florida, currently have to hold and attend Baccalaureate services at our local high schools.
“The ACLU may be successful at ending the freedom students currently possess to lead Christian prayers at school-sponsored events. The truth is that no man nor power, on the earth, under the earth or above the earth can stop true Christian parents and their children from praying and worshiping Jesus Christ in their homes.
“My greatest concern is not whether the ACLU is successful in stopping baccalaureate services from being held voluntarily in the public schools. My greatest concern is whether Christian parents and children will voluntarily give up the practice of prayer and worship of Jesus Christ in their homes.
“The history of Christianity teaches us that when parents and children pray and worship Jesus Christ first and foremost in their homes, those parents and children influence their schools, their communities and even the world for Christ regardless of what action(s) the local, state or national government may take to stop Christians from accomplishing their mission of living for the glory of God in all they say and do.”
Comments
9 Responses to “Bratt Pastor Reacts To ACLU Lawsuit Over Prayer At School Events”
Kudos to Vince Lauria. The commandment that George Carlin advocated is one that I would like to be added to the original ten, to wit: “Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself!” The sanctimonious proselytizers who want to flaunt their religious beliefs to others of similar beliefs have been the cause of too much grief in this world.
In my opinion, a person’s religious beliefs is based more upon geography rather than any comparative theological studies. If any of the current televangelists in the country had happened to be born in Baghdad or Islamabad and studied the Koran rather than the Bible they would be devout Muslims. And that goes for the Imams in Iraq or Iran. If they were born in Baton Rouge or Biloxi they would probably be Christians.
I thought the same way as this pastor until I really considered the impact teachers have on our children. It is important that they also maintain the liberty to be able to express their faith in respectful and legal ways. To say that we should do it at home and not worry about the public school is not wise in my opinion. Most kids leave the faith of their fathers because of other adult influences in their lives and most of those are teachers. If many teachers and professors can influence our children with their agnostic, atheistic and liberal beliefs then our Christian teachers should be able to have a bible on their desk, pray over their lunch at school, pray for a student who asks for it and say God bless you when someone sneezes. the agreement that the Santa Rosa County School board made with the ACLU will forbid all this and more.
Amen,Brother, amen!
Vince is right, the treatment of religion and government by the forefathers was to not establish any religion within government so that all people could worship the religion of their choice. They wanted to avoid the problems that brought the early settlers to this country and one was religious freedom, and not because Britain was secular, but because it did in fact establish one sect of religious belief within the government framework.
“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?” _James Madison
Another interesting note is the number of the forefathers who were not Christain but Deist or Unitarians, which both groups disbelieve the Trinity and Diest do not believe in the divinity of Jesus or the Resurrection: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Paine to list the main ones. So Christainity was present, in fact it was actually made a part of some State’s Constitutions, but note that the country’s Constitution was devoid of these references, going so far as to make the requirement for office not to include a particular religious faith and in the first amendments to include the clause of not establishing a religion in government.
So it is a sticky issue with those who want the US to be Christain nation, not in the sense of it being the dominant religion, but in the policy making of laws, and that is stepping over the bounds of Constitutional law.
Nice job pastor. We need to keep God in our lives and homes they cant stop that. The more ACLU tell these young people to stop the more they will do it pray that is.
As you look around our country today, more and more people are following the old proverbial principle of “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.
As most people know this is commonly used to describe someone who doesn’t want to be involved in a situation, or someone turning a willful blind eye to the immorality of an act in which someone or something is involved.
I am proud to have a pastor that is willing to speak out against any person or organization that wants to stop someone from praying . . . . . especially our youth. This has nothing to do with the separation of church and state . . . but everything to do with bring Jesus Christ (GOD) back into our country.
Good for you, Pastor! As long as there are tests in school, and guns on the street… there will be prayer among our students. The ACLU can do absolutely nothing about it…. the more they try to silence them the more they will pray (they ARE teenagers, after all
)
Your stance is commendable. But It is in the interest of all churches to keep government and state separate. If religious organizations gain access to public institutions to convey their message, the question is always – which one? Which creed would prevail, Catholic?, Protestant? Which sub-form of these would then gain power to proselytise.
Our founding fathers knew the dangers. Christians do themselves a disservice by insisting on breaching this part of our Constitution, and demonstrate their disrespect for that document. A Buddhist, I would not want his or her children to feel themselves less important or marginalized because the milieu in which they learn seems to favor Christians. Let us keep our religious beliefs in our churches, our homes, and the silence of our own thoughts. Only in that way will be maintain our diversity and strength as a people.
Thank you Bro. Wieborg! While I find what the ACLU is doing deplorable, I applaud your reminder that our mission as parents starts in the home. Only then can we (and our children) take our message out into the world and bring glory to God and increase His Kingdom.