High school suspends coach for praying at games and Satanists make an appearance
According to ABC News, Bremerton High School announced that coach Joe Kennedy was placed on paid administrative leave for a controversial reason. As a tradition, Kennedy would pray with his athletes on the football field after every game, and the school decided to take action after notifying him that such action was deemed illegal. While Kennedy was banned from the school's activities, he still attends games as any other spectator and gets to see the action and interact with his team - including pray - from the stands.
A group of Satanists showed up to one of the games in response to the controversy. In an attempt to stress the importance of religious diversification and separation between church and state, members of the Satanic Temple of Seattle were present at the game wearing ritualistic clothing. Originally the group arrived to perform a ritual at the end of the game, as they claimed on the temple's website:
In permitting school-sponsored prayer, the district has created a de facto open forum for religious expression in accordance to the Establishment Clause of the federal constitution which prohibits the government from preferring one religion over another. Therefore, the Satanic Temple wishes to ensure their belief system has equal access to the football field.
%shareLinks-quote="The Satanic Temple of Seattle invites any staff or student of Bremerton High School to contact them to perform a post-game Satanic invocation." type="spreadWord"%
Presidential candidate Donald Trump expressed his support for coach Kennedy on Twitter:
Support Coach Kennedy and his right, together with his young players, to pray on the football field. Liberty Institute just suspended him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2015
RELATED: Satanic temple unveils goat-headed 'Baphomet' statue in Detroit
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