Representatives of two Christian high schools in Florida were not allowed to say a prayer over a loudspeaker before a state championship game.
Cambridge Christian School in Tampa and University Christian School in Jacksonville agreed to have a public prayer said before their 2A state championship game kickoff Friday in Orlando.
Florida’s high school athletic association, the host and coordinator of the event, denied the request to say a prayer over the public address system.
“We just wanted the right and the privilege and the honor to pray,” Tim Euler, head of Cambridge Christian School, told The Daily Signal.
Both schools had been able to pray before the 13 games each played during the season, Euler said.
“Anytime you ask for permission to pray among two Christian schools, there’s zero reason why that request should have been denied—other than out of fear of potential lawsuits by other outside organizations,” Euler said, adding:
I think the problem in our nation right now is we have a fear, as Christians, to even act out in our faith because it becomes offensive. That’s not the point. The point is we asked for a right to prayer and were denied our constitutional right to pray.
I’m not one of those that wants to pick a fight or look for a fight. But I’m just afraid in our nation if we don’t stand up for what we believe biblically, then we’ll just continue to lose rights and privileges. And I think the Lord wants us to stand up for what’s right.
The executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association, Roger Dearing, conveyed the reasoning behind the decision in emails to Euler and his counterpart at University Christian School.
Dearing said in the email—which Euler provided to The Daily Signal—that a prayer said over the PA system could not be allowed because the football facility predominantly is paid for by tax dollars. Also, the athletic association acts on behalf of the state, as a “state actor,” so it could not “legally permit or grant permission for such an activity.”
“I totally understand the desire, and why your request is made,” Dearing wrote. “However, for me to grant the wish could subject this association to tremendous legal entanglements.”
Euler said this reasoning “is flawed at the core.” He noted that the Florida Legislature prays in the State Capitol building, and that same right ought to be allowed in a public football stadium.
“People of faith do not lose their religious freedom just because they use public facilities,” said Melody Wood, a research assistant for the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. “When teams want to pray together voluntarily, they should not be discriminated against simply because the content of their message is religious.”
Corey Sobers, a spokesman for state’s athletic association, told The Daily Signal that the group did not prevent students and parents from the two schools from praying.
“The issue was putting it on the public address system, not the fact that they were praying,” Sobers said:
Certainly they were able to pray on their own. They could certainly do so in the locker room, they could do so on the field. That was not an issue, but the part about blasting it over the public address system, that was the one thing that was denied.
Praying over the PA system “would have been a potential legal issue for the association,” Sobers added.
Euler took issue with this.
“What’s interesting is that it seems like prayer in our country has become something that you can do that is appropriate to do during times of mourning and loss and tragedy, but it is placed on the back burner in times of thanksgiving and excitement,” Euler said.
Without a football field of its own, Cambridge Christian hosted its state tournament games leading up to the championship at public facilities.
“Those were state tournament games just like this one was. There was no difference to them,” Euler said. The school was able to have prayer over the loudspeaker at those games.
Players and fans of the two Christian school teams responded to the situation with prayer in another form. Both football teams gathered midfield to pray before the game. Fans recited the Lord’s Prayer after singing the national anthem.
University went on to trounce Cambridge, 61-16.
