Avoiding Jailtime on a Wing and a Prayer

Two Florida educators escaped unscathed from the hot water they were in late this week when they were found to not have violated a federal court order which barred them from praying at school events. Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman avoided possible fines and jail time when U.S. Supreme Court Judge Casey Rodgers decided the two hadn't “willfully”(read:intentionally) violated the consent decree they signed just nine days prior to the school event. I don't believe for a second they weren't aware of what they were doing, but the judge has ruled, and they are under even more scrutiny now. So I really don't care too much about it. I'll post a few links to other stories that lay out the issue greater detail.

Upon hearing about the pair's ordeal, several members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation wrote a letter supporting them. 58 other members of our government read and signed a letter that stated "The tradition of offering prayer in America has become so interwoven into our nation's spiritual heritage that to charge someone criminally for engaging in such a practice would astonish the men who founded this country on religious liberty."

I think those congressmen that signed that letter should think about the idea that there are many traditions this country was founded on that would not be acceptable today. Civil rights and Suffrage are two that come to mind right away.

By the way, just in case anyone forgot, not only is what they did unconstitutional, there was a consent decree signed just nine days earlier that prohibited this very kind of action.