Posted on 06/05/2013 10:54:28 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
PICKENS COUNTY, S.C. – A high school valedictorian from South Carolina ripped up his approved speech on stage this past weekend, and minutes later, delivered the Lord’s Prayer in defiance of the school district’s decision to no longer include prayer at graduation ceremonies.
Roy Costner IV drew loud applause and cheers when he surprised attendees of the Liberty High School graduation at Clemson’s Littlejohn Colliseum on Saturday.
“From the ACLU sending FOIA requests to every district in the state this year after the Chesterfield County case, then the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent us a complaint about religion at board meetings and some other issues as well,” Pickens County School District spokesman John Eby said, the district has been under fire.
Therefore, officials decided to end invocations at all school functions and replace prayer at high school graduations with a moment of silence.
However, Costner wasn’t going to let activist groups kick God out of his graduation. After taking the podium, Costner took his approved speech and ripped it in half for all to see.
“They write their speeches,” Eby told local television station WYFF. “They send them to someone on staff to have them approved.”
After speaking from a separate script for a few minutes, Costner then began to thank his parents for his Christian upbringing.
“Those that we look up to, they have helped carve and mold us into the young adults that we are today,” he said. “I’m so glad that both of my parents led me to the Lord at a young age.”
“And I think most of you will understand when I say…” he continued, surprising the crowd with what came next.
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name,” Costner declared. “Thy Kingdom come…”
As attendees realized that Costner was reciting the Lord’s Prayer, applause began to break out in the colliseum. Within seconds, the applause was accompanied by loud cheers.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” he continued. “For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”
The crowd again broke into cheers and applause as Costner concluded, and one faculty member sat smiling behind him.
“I think it took a lot of courage to do that,” attendee Logan Gibson told reporters. “People were [supportive] that he stood up for what he believed in.”
Eby said that the district will not be taking any action against Costner.
“The bottom line is, we’re not going to punish students for expressing their religious faiths,” he stated. “He’s a graduate now. There’s nothing we can do about it, even if we wanted to.”
An online video of Costner’s prayer has received over 13,000 hits and more than 300 likes since yesterday.
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
A beautiful and uplifting example of moral courage - sorely needed right now. I hope everyone in his school, both students and staff, are inspired by his example. And people reading about it. Amazing that reciting the Lord's Prayer is now such a subversive and practically illegal act. I want MORE of this kind of - dare I say it? - civil disobedience.
Anyone wanting on/off any of my ping lists, freepmail me.
I am a Hindu, and I feel the same way. I’m not afraid to recite the Lord’s Prayer and consider it holy and beautiful. IMHO all believers on God need to stand together and support each others’ rights to free speech and religious freedom, or we will all suffer together.
(I will admit I leave Moslems out of the equation because it is much more a war plan than a religion.)
I often have pointed this out to those who claim there is no absolute right or wrong.
There very philosophical foundation negates itself. They stand (momentarily) on thin air.
If a Moslem had stood up and recited the Koran or perhaps the Moslem statement of faith (can’t remember what it’s called), I and probably a fair number of others might have stood up and walked out.
Islam is a war plan of total oppression and butchery, from the very beginning. Tolerating that which does not tolerate you is suicide.
ROTFLOL!
Now that there is funny. I restate my position - I would stand up and not walk out, but run out as fast as possible!
My hub volunteers teaching martial arts to children and young adults (teenagers through 20s). He does it to be a role model, and gradually and gently teach some basic character and moral training and “be there” for them, so many fatherless and broken families nowadays.
What would your reaction have been if he was Muslim and delivered a prayer in Arabic?
That would be fine by me, actually. If he cannot pray as his conscience dictates he is not a free man but is a slave and a vassal.
I take it you are expecting FReepers to have a different response? Why?
Another reason I support all private/fee paid schools and think public government run schools should be outlawed.(We should have the right to assemble freely with those that share our values.We should not be taxed to support school systems that promote values that we dont agree with, such as atheists or Muslims. Let them form their own private schools and not tax us to pay for them.) - but that’s a conversation for a different day.
Try this:
Yesiree. If he added “we have an evil president”, I would have contacted him to intern for our production company.
I posted a link to the YouTube video in my FB page. I hope it gets dozens of “likes”
Thanks. Too many distractions. I’m visiting my sister in Colorado.
Amen to that - getting tired of liberal bullies...
Or an IRS audit for his parents...
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
This made my day!!!THANK YOU GOD for this courageous young man!
That is the same link, and this time both that, and the one in the header of the thread both worked.
It is an overloaded server at cristiannews.net. Some people, like apparently you, have a shorter path to it than others, so your request made it and my request got timed out yesterday.
Good for him!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.