[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 159 (Wednesday, October 28, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7559-S7561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, it is just past the middle of football 
season in America--a sad thing for a lot of us who are football fans. 
This is the time when some fans are thinking seriously about the 
playoffs and other fans start thinking seriously about trying to get 
their coach fired.
  In Bremerton, WA, coach Joe Kennedy is in trouble not because the 
team has a losing record but because he has the audacity to kneel down 
and pray on the 50-yard line after the football games are over and 
thank God for the chance to coach there and for the safety of his 
players.

[[Page S7560]]

  Gratitude to God is certainly not a crime in America. In fact, that 
is encouraged every year in the national prayer proclamation given by 
every President for decades, including this one. Coach Joe Kennedy is 
the varsity assistant coach and the JV head coach in Bremerton, WA. He 
enjoys working with the guys and coaching football. He has an excellent 
employment record at the school and has been a great motivator of the 
guys on his team.
  Since 2008, Coach Kennedy has had the habit of walking out to the 50-
yard line after the game is over and kneeling down to pray. After a few 
weeks of his starting to do this in 2008, a couple of the Christian 
students on the team also asked if they could come and kneel down next 
to him, which they have done and he has allowed them to do. They are 
not required to pray. They are not required to be there at all. But 
those students have the freedom they have exercised to express their 
faith, and so does Coach Kennedy.
  For some reason, this season has been different. Now the district has 
asked the coach not to pray after the games. Instead, they want to 
provide him with a private room where he can go and pray separately so 
no one will see him. I have a letter from the district where they say 
they will give him this accommodation: ``[A] private location within 
the school building, athletic facility or press box could be made 
available to you for brief religious exercise before and after games.'' 
They literally want him to go into another spot so no one will see him 
pray. That seems to be the accommodation here. They are saying to him 
that he has the freedom to pray in a location we choose.
  The district has the fear that if anyone sees the coach praying, they 
may think the coach endorses or that the district endorses a particular 
faith. They wrote in a separate letter to the coach these criteria to 
say: As we go forward, these are the standards to apply. Quoting from 
the district:

       Students are free to initiate and engage in religious 
     activity, including prayer, so long as it does not interfere 
     with the school or team activities. Student religious 
     activity must be entirely and genuinely student-initiated, 
     and may not be suggested, encouraged (or discouraged), or 
     supervised by District staff.

  Second, and continuing to quote:

       If students engage in religious activity, school staff may 
     not take any action likely to be perceived by a reasonable 
     observer, who is aware of the history and context of such 
     activity at BHS, as endorsement of that activity. Examples 
     identified in the Borden case include kneeling or bowing 
     of the head during the students' religious activities.
       You and all District staff are free to engage in religious 
     activity, including prayer, so long as it does not interfere 
     with job responsibilities. Such activity must be physically 
     separate from any student activity, and students may not be 
     allowed to join such activity. In order to avoid the 
     perception of endorsement discussed above, such activity 
     should either be non-demonstrative--

  In other words, you can't see it outwardly--

     (i.e. not outwardly discernible as religious activity) if 
     students are also engaged in religious conduct, or it should 
     occur while students are not engaging in such conduct.

  In other words, don't get near a Christian student when they are 
praying and bowing their head and also bow your head.
  It is an odd thing that the district would worry that their actions 
would be perceived that they may have an official policy for 
Christianity, but they don't seem to have the same worry that their 
actions to try to eliminate anyone expressing their faith would be an 
official policy of atheism at the campus, since if they purged all 
displays of faith from any person, it would appear that no faith is the 
endorsed faith of the district.
  Under this policy, if a teacher who is a Christian sees another 
Christian student praying, they have to get away from them or at least 
walk past them as if they are disinterested. I don't think people 
understand how offensive that is to our faith. If I see a student 
praying, I would want to stand by them to hear their prayer, to be 
encouraged by their prayer.
  Under this policy, if a Christian student had been bullied at school 
and they wanted to sit by a Christian teacher at lunch, when that 
student at lunch bowed their head to pray over their low-calorie lunch 
meal, at their school lunch, the Christian teacher would either have to 
walk away or they would have to ignore their prayer, further 
ostracizing the student.
  Citizens don't lose their freedom of faith just because they also 
work for a State or Federal agency. People can display their faith--as 
this coach did for 7 years, and it had not been a problem for this 
coach to kneel down and pray at the end of the game. I am confused why 
suddenly now the district is concerned about this display of faith.
  Individuals can display their faith personally. It is their personal 
faith. It is not some endorsement by the district. A Wiccan teacher can 
wear a pentagram necklace. A Muslim teacher can wear a head scarf. A 
Christian can bow their head to pray at lunch, even a faculty member. A 
Sikh teacher can wear a turban. All of those are outward displays of a 
certain faith. How can a school district say that if you display your 
faith in a way that someone else can see it and figure out that you 
have faith, suddenly that is a violation of the establishment clause of 
the Constitution?
  Courts have ruled that in a school setting, prayer cannot be 
mandatory in the school, compelled by the school, led by the school. 
While some have a problem with this interpretation, frankly, I don't. 
I, quite frankly, think teachers have multiple different faiths and 
multiple backgrounds, and I have the responsibility as a parent to 
train my child how to pray consistent with our faith. That is not the 
responsibility of that teacher at school to be able to teach them their 
faith. That is my job.
  I do have a problem when an individual teacher is restrained from 
practicing their own faith or an individual student is restricted from 
that. It is entirely different when a district states that a coach may 
not quietly pray or allow students to voluntarily participate with a 
coach in prayer when they share the same faith. After a game is over 
and all the players are free to leave, that is their own free time. 
They can go to the locker room, they can talk to their parents, and 
they can flirt with the cheerleaders on the sidelines. That is their 
own time. They can choose to do what they want to do, but they 
shouldn't be restricted from praying if they also choose to do that.
  The Bremerton School District attorneys have chosen to apply the 
Borden v. School District of the Township of East Brunswick to this 
particular case. In that case, the coaches couldn't lead a prayer or 
participate if all the players were required to be present before the 
game. This is a required team meeting in the Borden School District of 
the Township of East Brunswick. This is completely different. This is 
after the game, when no player is required, no one is expected to be 
there, and those students and those coaches are on a brief period of 
respite after the game.
  For some reason, in this day and age, some citizens have become 
terrified of faith in America and prayer in America. They are 
frightened when people exercise their faith and live according to their 
sincerely held religious beliefs. So they try to quash it quietly. That 
is astounding to me--as a nation that was based on this basic principle 
of people being able to live their faith, not just to have it but to be 
able to live it.
  If a coach went to the 50-yard line after the game, sat down on a 
lawn chair and drank a Coke, no one would have a problem. If a coach 
went to the 50-yard line and sang Michael Jackson's ``Thriller'' and 
did the dance moves, he would be a YouTube sensation, but the district 
would have no problem with it. But if a coach goes to the 50-yard line, 
kneels down and prays, somehow that is a different type of speech or 
action. It is not. It is speech. It is the freedom of faith. It is who 
we are as Americans and our diversity in America. There is nothing 
different about that speech.
  The establishment clause in the Constitution is clear: ``Congress 
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . . . ''
  This is not the freedom to have a religion. This is the freedom to 
exercise it. It is very clear in the Constitution.
  For some in this generation, they want to talk about freedom of 
worship. You can worship and you can go to a place of worship, you can 
worship with anybody, any way you want to, if you go over there and do 
it, but they don't want people to actually come out and live their 
faith publicly.

[[Page S7561]]

  We don't have freedom of worship in America. China has freedom of 
worship. We have the free exercise of religion, where we can live our 
faith outside of our church buildings, in our private lives, even if 
you are a public individual.
  It is reasonable for this Congress to speak out on this issue because 
it is a First Amendment freedom. Protecting one coach's right to pray 
protects every person's right to pray in the Nation.
  So let me ask a question. Is the district going to engage in stopping 
coaches from kneeling down on the sideline during the fourth quarter in 
a last-second field goal attempt and prevent them from praying on the 
sidelines? That is a rich tradition in football.
  How about this moment. Last Saturday at Oklahoma State University, we 
had an incredible tragedy where a car careened through the homecoming 
parade, killing many and injuring many more. It was a horrible tragedy. 
It happened just hours before the game. Players and coaches at Oklahoma 
State University walked out of the tunnel, and before the game 
started--when typically they would all gather and cheer together--they 
instead chose, players and coaches, to kneel down on the sideline and 
to pray for the families who were affected by this incredible tragedy 
just hours before. This apparently offends some people, that people in 
a State setting would express their private faith. Nothing was mandated 
about this. This was a group of players and coaches, that their heart 
was grieved for what was happening in their city and among the Oklahoma 
State family. This shouldn't be prohibited in America. This is who we 
are.
  I don't challenge the people in Bremerton. These are all honorable 
people who want what is best for Bremerton, WA, families. They all care 
about their kids there. The superintendent, the principal, the coaches, 
they all care about the kids there. This is a genuine misunderstanding 
of what our Nation protects and what our Nation stands for.
  Article 6, clause 3 of the Constitution says this: ``No religious 
test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public 
trust under the United States.''
  In our Constitution, any individual who serves in any public trust in 
the United States doesn't have to set their faith aside nor have to 
take on any faith. In America, you can have a faith and live it or you 
can have no faith at all. That is the United States of America.
  Every day in this Chamber, including today, the Chaplain for the U.S. 
Senate begins our session in prayer. In this Chamber, the words ``In 
God We Trust'' are written right above the main doors as we walk in, 
the same as it is in the House Chamber above the Speaker's chair. We 
are not a nation that is trying to purge all faith. We are a nation 
that allows people to live their faith.
  I ask individuals in this Chamber right now who choose to, to even 
pray with me as I close out this statement.
  Father, I pray for Coach Kennedy and the leadership of Bremerton, the 
superintendents, and the principals. They have a difficult job, and I 
pray that You would bless them today. And I pray that You encourage 
those students, as they struggle with this basic religious freedom that 
we have in this Nation, that there would be a unity there and a 
decision that would be made that would clearly stand on the side of 
freedom. For the coaches and teachers of all faiths who serve there and 
serve across our Nation, I pray that You would bless those coaches and 
teachers today. They do a difficult task. As they walk with students 
through difficult decisions, I pray that You would encourage them in 
Your faith.
  Thank You, Jesus, for the way that You sustain our Nation and for the 
freedom that we have. We ask Your help in protecting us.
  In Your Name I pray. Amen.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Johnson). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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