This week's edition of The 3, featuring three stories of relevance to the Christian community, shines the light on a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court involving a football coach who went to midfield after every game to pray and lost his job as the result. Also, a group of pro-life individuals who had been arrested for participating in peaceful activity on behalf of unborn children in North Carolina have reached a settlement in the county where the incidents occurred. And, the U.S. Senate turned back an effort to pass a Federal law in support of abortion, which would have overturned state pro-life laws.
Former and current NFL pros joined fired Washington coach's team
High-profile individuals from the government and sporting realms are lining up behind the former Bremerton, Washington, football coach, Joe Kennedy, who was suspended by his school district and eventually terminated because of his postgame practice of going to the 50-yard line to pray and was joined by others - he had been doing that for seven years when a complaint was filed, setting in motion the chain of events resulting in his firing. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear his case - again - after sending it back to lower courts several years ago.
In a recent press release issued by First Liberty, the firm that represents the coach, it notes that "Six former U.S. Attorneys General, Coach Tommy Bowden—son of legendary football coach Bobby Bowden, former college and NFL coach Lou Holtz and America First Policy Institute, and NFL Hall of Famers Steve Largent and Darrell Green joined dozens of individuals and organizations by filing 'friend-of-the-court' briefs..."
Alliance Defending Freedom added to that list on its website, saying that current NFL players and other former players have signed on to a "friend-of-the-court" brief in which ADF participated, listing "Kirk Cousins, Joe DeLamielleure, Nick Foles, Phil Olsen, Christian Ponder, Drew Stanton, Harry Swayne, and Jack Youngblood."
ADF's John Bursch is quoted as saying, referring to Coach Kennedy: "The fact that he prayed after a game doesn’t change the fact that his speech is just as protected by the First Amendment, and we hope the Supreme Court will reverse the 9th Circuit and affirm just that.”North Carolina county settles with pro-life organization regarding on-site protests
In March of 2020 in Greensboro, North Carolina, members of a pro-life organization called, Love Life, were engaged in speaking up for the unborn publicly - ChristianHeadlines.com reported that "police arrested Love Life members for allegedly violating COVID-19 restrictions outside A Woman’s Choice abortion clinic in Greensboro. The members were praying and conducting sidewalk counseling, although they insisted they were following CDC recommendations for social distancing."
The story goes on to say:
Alliance Defending Freedom sued the county and the city of Greensboro on behalf of the ministry and the members, asserting that the police’s actions violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and religious liberty.The article does note that "ADF’s lawsuit against Greensboro is still active." Denise Harle of ADF noted, " If abortion businesses could stay open to perform elective abortions during the pandemic, Christians abiding by health and safety guidelines should certainly be allowed to pray outside."As part of the settlement, Guilford County agreed that the ministry’s actions are protected by the First Amendment. The county also will pay $15,000 in attorneys’ fees. ADF agreed to file a dismissal of the case, while the ministry’s members agreed not to seek damages.
This echoes a suit filed in a Charlotte instance in 2020 on behalf of a group of pro-life people, including well-known Christian communicator David Benham. CBN.com related that in April of the same year
that David, the head of the pro-life group, Cities4Life, "and other representatives of pro-life groups were across the street from an abortion clinic in Charlotte, North Carolina to offer counseling and prayer to expectant mothers considering abortion." Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Benham and those who stood with him.
The article continues: "As CBN News reported, police arrested the activists and cited them for violating COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines, even though they were following all the health and safety requirements including social distancing.
This is another instance of civil authorities using the COVID pandemic in order to override constitutional rights. The CBN article states:
During a previous interview with CBN News, Benham said we need to love our neighbors and not let our pro-life views be silenced because of COVID.
"It's viewpoint discrimination. They're using this COVID emergency as an opportunity to grasp and silence our voices so we have a constitutional issue on our hands and we really have to stand against it," Benham said.
Senate votes to halt bill that would establish so-called "right to abortion" and override state laws.
Abortion was front and center in the U.S. Senate recently, as lawmakers attempted to push through the Women’s Health Protection Act, described in an article at The Christian Post as a “bill to protect a person’s ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide abortion services.”
Carol Tobias, the president of National Right to Life, said: “This legislation would have made sweeping changes, including expanding taxpayer funding of abortion, and eliminating requirements that a woman be given information about the development of her unborn child so she can make an informed decision.” The Director of Federal Legislation for NRLC, Jennifer Popik, said, "This legislation would quash nearly all existing protective state laws,” adding, “With this bill, elective abortion would have become the procedure that must always be facilitated — never delayed, never impeded to the slightest degree.”
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