[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17328-17329]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             PERSONAL FAITH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Forbes) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, today as I stand on this great floor, a 
place that we call the people's House, I look across and there is a 
plaque of Moses, the great law-giver. While he may not be staring me in 
the eye, he stares at every Speaker, who stands where you stand today, 
directly in the eye. Right above you, there is our national motto that 
is even above the flag of the United States that says, ``In God we 
trust.''
  I come here this morning because in the State of Washington in 
Bremerton School District, they take a different interpretation of that 
motto. You see, they believe there that you can trust in God as long as 
you don't trust too much; that you can be grateful to that God as long 
as you are not too grateful.
  Last week, they put on administrative leave a young football coach, 
Coach Joe Kennedy, not because he molested a child, not because he 
wasn't a winning football coach, not even because he didn't have good 
service--because everyone agreed he had exemplary service for the last 
8 years--but the reason was simply because he dared to offer a 
personal, private prayer at the conclusion of a football game thanking 
God for protecting his players and the players on the other football 
team.
  Now, the Bremerton School District is very noble because they say 
Coach Kennedy can exercise his faith even while on duty as long as no 
one else can see it.
  Mr. Speaker, as the Bremerton School District cites cases, they do 
like so many anti-faith groups do. They cite the cases, but it is just 
that those cases don't apply to the facts in this particular situation 
at all.
  This coach is not asking to pray with students at a mandatory pregame 
meeting. He is asking for his freedom to quietly and personally offer 
prayer and thanks for his team and the safety of his players after the 
game is over and the players are heading to greet their families and 
friends in the stands.
  As a Member of Congress, my faith is not some kind of coat that I 
take off when I walk into the Capitol Building to perform my 
legislative duties. And as a coach, Coach Kennedy's faith is not 
something he sheds when he walks onto the field.
  The Constitution doesn't require you to be sequestered to a private 
room out

[[Page 17329]]

of sight and earshot to offer a prayer. It protects the right of an 
individual to visibly express his or her faith, just like it protects 
the right of a Muslim teacher to wear her head scarf or a Jewish 
teacher to wear his yarmulke.

                              {time}  1015

  Mr. Speaker, that is why I rise today, because I hope all across this 
country Americans will stand with Coach Kennedy, as we do today, and, 
in so doing, send a message to the Bremerton School District in the 
State of Washington that when they trample on even one young football 
coach's religious liberties and religious freedom, they trample on the 
religious freedom and the religious liberty of all of us.

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