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In Jesus' Name We Play


My hometown has ejected God from the football field.

Orange County, which includes Orlando, made a decision this season to not allow Christian chaplains to minister to student athletes. Chaplains, which are a staple on almost every sideline, typically lead players in voluntary pre- and post-game prayers, and are there for players in time of crisis.

The public school system went a step further, banning Bible verses and references to the Bible from campuses.

The decisions came after a threat was made by the Freedom From Religion organization. The very name of this organization is unconstitutional. The Bill of Rights guarantees us freedom of religion, not freedom from it. If people do not want religion, they have freedom from it, but the State cannot infringe upon the rights of those who do want religion.

Liberals are quick to cry, “Separation of church and State!” But they fail to see that the line of separation goes both ways. The Founders’ fear was not that the Church would dominate the State, but that the State would dominate the Church. That is what is happening in Orange County. The school board cannot make Bible reading mandatory, but it is just as wrong to declare it offensive.

Groups like Freedom From Religion need to stop seeking to strip away the religious liberty promised by our founding documents, and elected leaders need to stop acting like cowards whenever these groups makes threats. My advice to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, and all other officials in the area, is to reverse course immediately. This decision is unpopular in Central Florida, and the voters will make you pay for it.

In the early days of this country our Congress used tax dollars to print Bibles for the sole purpose of using them as textbooks. The government’s own printing press produced Bibles for children to read in school. Teachers led their students in prayer every morning.

One can’t help but wonder, since the Bible and prayer have been removed from schools, have we become better or worse? The “Greatest Generation” was raised on prayer and Bible reading; the pot-smoking, free love hippies were the first generation raised apart from those things.

Since God was expelled from school literacy rates have plummeted and classroom behavior is horrendous. Schools distribute condoms and drive girls to abortion clinics without parental consent, but they cannot even reference the Bible.

Maybe if we let students read the Bible they would grasp that abstinence works; they don’t need contraception or clinics if they aren’t having sex. Why is the school system afraid to let kids read the commands to not lie, cheat, or steal?

School systems pay out great sums of money for anti-bullying seminars, all the while the Bible gives free anti-bullying advice: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”


Expelling God from school was a disaster; what will happen now that He has been ejected from the field?  

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