Christian legal group in the United States has launched a new campaign seeking to restore public prayer and faith expression in public settings.
The campaign “Restoring Faith in America” which is aimed at defending the right to openly pray, display the Ten Commandments, erect nativity scenes, and otherwise express faith in arenas where religiosity disappeared in recent decades was announced Monday by First Liberty Institute Texas.
The campaign was instigated after a 2022 Supreme Court ruling allowed a Washington State high school football coach to pray on the field at the end of games.
In 2015, Joe Kennedy, a Christian coach was fired from Bremerton High School in Washington for praying on the field after games. A lawsuit however was later filed against the school district.
In 2022, the US Supreme Court backed Kennedy, ruling that the Washington State public school district had violated his rights by suspending him for refusing to stop leading post-game prayers with players. Kennedy was later reinstated to his previous position as an assistant coach.
Kennedy’s attorney for the case, Paul Clement, is urging Americans to “take a knee” with Coach Kennedy on 1st September to support public expression of faith. The First Freedom Challenge calls on people to commit to joining a national night of prayer with the coach as he returns to the field next month.
“This is a great opportunity to take a knee with the coach and show everybody that we are restoring faith in America, and people can see that the right that the Supreme Court has recognized is real because people are exercising that right with the coach,” Clement said on behalf of First Liberty Institute in Youtube.
The Restoring Faith in America campaign describes the challenge as the “first simple yet powerful step” to restore faith in US schools.
“God has opened an incredible door for all Americans to express their faith and bring faith back to our communities,” it adds.
However, District-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State argue such campaigns promote “religious majoritarianism,” not religious freedom.
CEO Rachel Laser told The Washington Times this form of liberty is “not an America that works for us or an America that most people want”