A Las Vegas school district eliminates prayer from its school board meetings after an out of state atheist group complains.
Prayer is no longer a part of the Clark County School Board meetings after a national group claimed it’s unconstitutional.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation said it got a tip from a “concerned local.” That’s when it demanded CCSD stop the prayers.
After pastor Rodger Gardner saw the letter he told reporters, “This is just bow down and agree with what the letter says. Well, my first reaction is that it’s dangerous.”
The atheists said school board members can pray privately or in their own time, but “it is coercive, embarrassing and intimidating for nonreligious citizens to be required to make a public showing of their non-belief.”
Antonio Bowen is running for school board trustee. He is also a youth pastor. He said, “For another organization to send something and say we don’t like this and we just up and do it, that can’t happen.”
Rev. Gardner added, “They have a right not to pray. They have a right not to stand. That would be okay. But people of faith have the same right to stand and worship their God and acknowledge their God. If they take prayer out of meetings, you can’t take God out of meetings.”
Bowen added, “We understand that there’s freedom of religion, First Amendment rights, you know. But it’s the whole thing of, the whole principle of … we’re America. In God we trust.”
Bowen recently met with around 30 pastors. They plan on speaking at the next school board meeting.