Column: If you support postgame prayers, then you should also support Kaepernick

Many celebrated when the Supreme Court ruled a high school football coach was within his right to offer opportunity for a postgame prayer. Those same folks should also support Colin Kapernick's national anthem protests, columnist Mac Engel says.

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Sports

June 29, 2022 - 2:38 PM

In this photo from April 25, 2022, former Bremerton High School assistant football coach Joe Kennedy takes a knee in front of the U.S. Supreme Court after his legal case, Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District, was argued before the court in Washington, DC. Kennedy was terminated from his job by Bremerton public school officials in 2015 after refusing to stop his on-field prayers after football games. Photo by (Win McNamee/Getty Images/TNS)

Given the nature of our third branch of government, the United States Supreme Court, the ruling is no surprise. 

Before the court goes after the gay marriage, interracial marriage and a woman’s right to vote, on Monday morning it ruled in favor of the high school football coach who took a knee to pray.

As it should.

One of the details that makes America America is the right to take a knee, and peacefully express themselves for whatever the reason.

That includes taking a knee to protest the treatment of Black Americans by law enforcement or taking a knee to pray to God after a football game.

If you support Joseph Kennedy, the high school football coach in Washington state who took a knee to pray after the game, then you must support Colin Kaepernick.

Their intentions are different, but the act is the same, and it cost both of them their jobs.

In 2015, Kennedy was an assistant coach at Bremerton High near Seattle, where he routinely led a post-game prayer in which players and coaches from both teams would participate.

According to those who participated, the post-game routine was your conventional Christian prayer.

The school district said Kennedy had to stop, because it violated the separation of church and state.

Kennedy, an ex-Marine who served 20 years in the military, initially agreed and stopped. Then the First Liberty Institute reached out and wanted to fight for his cause.

The First Liberty Institute is in … Plano, Texas, naturally.

The case took seven years, and went from Washington state to Washington, D.C., where the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Monday in favor of Kennedy.

In a stunning twist, the six conservative judges voted in favor of Kennedy while the three liberal leaning judges did not.

The Kennedy decision is another example of Supreme Court judges interpreting our constitution to fit own personal beliefs, and hiding behind expensive words to make you feel better about yours.

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