Video: LFO cheerleaders reflect on banner ban aftermath

For all you people so against what you call our "so called Jesus" he is very real. If it hadn't been for him none of us would be here. I will never give up what I believe in because Jesus received the same ridicule and mockery that you people are doing to these kids. Where are the adult christians that should be taking up for these kids. Where were you at when they wanted to take prayer and Jesus out of schools. Its time Christians stand up for what we believe, what if at the first sign of conflict Jesus said ok i will go along with what ever you say. what if he had given up on us? What hope would we have? Should we not love hime just as much as he did us, and don't back down to these people that don't even know the love and compassion of Christ. We let them take prayer out of school, are we not going to stand for our beliefs after we have seen what taking prayer out of schools has done to the kids. For some of them that was the first time they had even heard of jesus. Now the NCAA has made a new bi-law that won't let players put bible verses under their eyes but they can put tattoes all over their bodies and play. What is wrong with this picture?

I would argue against introducing "prayer in school" based upon the fact that any prayers permitted by law in a public school would have little if nothing to do with Orthodox Christian belief.

To speak plainly, viewed from within Christian belief, prayer works as follows

1) by asserting as fact that all people are marked by sin;

2) by asserting as fact that all people are bound for damnation and destruction without an acceptance of the atoning sacrifice of Christ's death and resurrection;

3) by placing the individual's thoughts and actions under the mercy and guidance of Christ.

If a teacher or any paid employee of a school receiving federal funding articulated any of those necessary points honestly and openly in a classroom, none of that would stand up in court.

Any official sanction of a recognizably "Christian" prayer would immediately be closed down, so I cannot see why the fight to include prayer in the classroom would be worthwhile.

And if the courts and schools could agree on an acceptable form of prayer I think that you can imagine what sort of watered down nonsense would be offered.

As an alternative strategy, I would offer that a clear prayerful conscience and an open example of right and compassionate action based upon a clear prayerful conscience are a much better way of influencing a civic life.

At one time, before political hands began to meddle, Baptists and Quakers alike understood and insisted upon this distinction.

Any dissenting protestant group was grounded in the rejection of state-sanctioned religious dogma and the protection of the priesthood of the believer. Alas, young people in Fort Oglethorpe and elsewhere know very little about history, critical thinking, and conscientious dissent, but much about showmanship and flattery, conformity and group-think.

I would venture to say that grandstanding and cheer-leading for prayer does little but flatter the vainglory and pride of the Home Team. God knows--literally and figuratively--the Home Team does not need that sort of snare.

Prayer is not a soundbite, t-shirt, a text message, or a bumper-sticker, or a banner held at a rally, whatever the guides to unwisdom might declare. Alas, that is the way of our shallow, media-consumed times.