Atheist activists aren’t taking too kindly to a former South Carolina high school student’s recent graduation speech — an address that invoked God and included a full recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. The Freedom of Religion Foundation (FFRF) has responded by accusing valedictorian Roy Costner IV of “insensitively” pushing Christian prayer on his audience.
Of particular note, FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor blamed the Pickens County School District for setting a poor example — one that apparently spawned the student’s religious fervor.
Roy Costner (Photo Credit: Facebook)
“The valedictorian who so insensitively inflicted Christian prayer on a captive audience at a secular graduation ceremony is a product of a school district which itself has set an unconstitutional example by hosting school board prayer,” Gaylor said in a news release published on the church-state separatist group’s web site.
The FFRF pledged to continue monitoring the situation and noted that it appeared Costner was perhaps responding to complaints and letters that the atheist group had sent to the school district. In an interview yesterday with TheBlaze, the 18-year-old graduate confirmed that his prayer was, indeed, a response to the invocation controversy facing his community.
In a press release, the FFRF provided a timeline of events leading up to the much-publicized graduation prayer:
FFRF, a Madison, Wis.-based state/church watchdog, began corresponding with the school board late last year after receiving complaints that the Pickens County Board of Trustees was scheduling students to lead Christian prayers to open its monthly meetings.
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