A 70 year tradition of singing the Lord’s Prayer at an Ohio high school came to an end this year.
The decades old custom at East Liverpool High School’s commencement is no more thanks to a group of atheists, agnostics and free-thinkers from Wisconsin.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation fired off a letter to the school district alleging that someone complained after hearing the song at the 2015 graduation ceremonies.
The FFRF warned that it is against the law for a public school to promote religion – and they “asked” that no religious songs be sung at graduation in the future, according to newspaper reports.
The district was faced with a choice – drop the song and appease the out-of-town bullies or keep the song and risk a lawsuit. The school district chose to drop the song. The ban has devastated the community – and especially students in the school’s music program.
Lisa Ensinger performed the sacred song when she was a senior at the school in 1986.
She tried to convince the school board to reconsider the ban with an impassioned plea at a recent board meeting and warned the district that banning a piece of sacred music could lead the school down a troubling path.
She told Todd Starnes of Fox News, “Once you say you can’t do one piece of music because of a text – you open a door that will basically shut out large quantities of music and music history,” “You take out Bach’s work, most of Mozart’s work, you take out everything from the Middle Ages because it’s all sacred. “