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June 6th, 2013
10:37 AM ET
With his speech, valedictorian brings God to graduationBy Jessica Ravitz, CNN (CNN) - Leading up to Saturday’s ceremony, Roy Costner IV prayed on what he was going to do. Liberty High School’s 2013 valedictorian would soon find himself in front of a microphone. He’d have a pulpit from which he could address his small community tucked away in South Carolina’s mountainous corner. Only his father and pastor knew what was weighing on his heart and mind. Could he, should he, insert a prayer in his pre-approved graduation speech? He’d been told by the school principal that talk of religion wasn’t allowed, and so far he’d followed the rules. But as the day approached, the 18-year-old couldn’t deny what he felt he needed to do. “I wanted to stand up for God,” he explained Wednesday. “This is what God wanted me to do.” So Costner, in cap and gown, stood behind the podium and ripped up his original speech. Before he gave shout-outs to coaches, cheerleaders and friends, there was something else he wanted to say. “One thing I am certain of is we’re all a sum of our experiences, both good and bad,” he told his fellow graduates, a class of about 150. “All in all, those experiences, the people who mentored us, that we look up to, they have helped carve and mold us into the young adults that we are today. I’m so thankful that both of my parents led me to the Lord at a young age. And I think most of you will understand when I say, ‘Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …” The crowd before him began to cheer as he recited the Lord’s Prayer, drowning out a few verses. The school principal, sitting behind him, appeared uncomfortable and peered down at papers on her lap. The school district’s superintendent, a few seats over, couldn’t help but smile. “I was tearing up,” Costner said, remembering the moment. “I was overwhelmed by the response. … The clapping was so loud I couldn’t hear myself talking into the microphone.” His father told CNN's Piers Morgan on Thursday night he was overwhelmed with pride for his son. The younger Costner approached his dad a few days before the speech and showed him what he wanted to do. "I said, 'Look, if you're doing this for political reasons, don't. But if you're doing it because you feel led to do it and you feel this is a part of your speech, then I want you to do it and I'll stand by you,' " Roy Costner III said. Some who were there heaped on praise when talking to CNN affiliate WYFF. One called it “pretty impressive.” Another student said it “took a lot of courage” and that “people were proud that he stood up for what he believed in.” What he believes is that Liberty, a town with three stoplights and a population of 3,000, “fully supports prayer.” He also believes that organizations such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Madison, Wisconsin, group dedicated to maintaining separation of church and state, should stop meddling in the affairs of the Pickens County School District. The foundation, over this past school year, has leaned on the district to keep Jesus and student-led prayers out of school board meetings. Other concerns went beyond board meetings. This spring, the foundation’s staff attorney sent a lawyer representing the district a letter about complaints of alleged discriminatory hiring and religious promotion in another county high school and praise music being played in an elementary school classroom. The foundation said it learned of such practices by way of community members who are, in fact, not fully supporting prayer. Costner said he set out to make a statement, one he hopes will inspire others to stand up, too, for what he sees as the good of this country. “Taking prayer out of schools is the worst thing we could do,” he said. If Costner went to a Christian school, there would be no discussion, said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. But in public schools, even in a place where there may be a religious majority, prayers such as his are clearly unconstitutional, she said. What’s more, she added, what he did shows contempt for school district policy and a lack of sensitivity for his audience. “It’s aggressive. It’s supremely rude,” she said. “This student is old enough to know that not everyone in the audience is Christian.” But Costner, who was bouncing between interviews and heading to New York for TV appearances, said he counts atheists among his friends. He said that even though he doesn’t agree with their beliefs, he respects them – and that they do the same for him. The elder Costner said his son had been inundated with messages of support, even from atheists. He said he thinks the video of the speech resonated with people across the country because many people "really want something to hold onto for hope." The son said he’s experienced no blowback from the district for what he did. And a district spokesman suggested Costner won’t. “He’s a graduate now, so there’s nothing we can do about it even if we wanted to,” John Eby told WYFF. “But the bottom line is we’re not going to punish students for expressing their religious faiths.” The district, Eby explained to CNN Friday morning, is in a “nearly impossible position.” He said federal law, under the Establishment Clause, is clear that public schools cannot “approve in advance a student’s prayer” or “carve out time specifically for religious expression.” But, under the Free Exercise Clause, he added, “we can’t punish students who do pray.” Gaylor doesn’t expect there to be any punishment. But without issuing some sort of statement expressing disappointment and reiterating school policy, she said, the district is making a mistake. “It’s one thing if a school doesn’t have a policy,” she said. “But when they do, they really need to enforce their policy because otherwise it’s just a wink and a nod.” Eby has an answer to this. “I do want to reiterate that we don’t approve rule breaking,” he said. “But we are very serious about protecting our students’ rights to express themselves religiously – or refuse to.” soundoff (5,383 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Unfortunately people who don't have morals want everyone to not have morals.
Christianity is in fact the absence of morals.
then quit listening to republicans.
I think this kid has morals, he just decided lying was too important, this time. He went against his morals and lied in order to talk about his god. God's okay with shifting morals, right?
Who is more moral – one who does good becuase of a geniune desire to help their fellow man or one who does good to avoid punishment?
funny that shuffler because that claim is itself a lie, which means you have shown a lack of morals whilst lying of others not having morals.
Winner of the most ignorant statement of the day award.
Idi0t!
Great job at the podium Roy, America is proud of you. Entering the spiritual arena sure upsets a lot of beings. Reasoning will always supersede human logic. In the original Reyna Valera Bible translation it reads as follows: "Pues el hombre animal no percive las cosas espirituales pues se han de discernir espiritualmente." "For the natural (animal) man does not perceive the things of the spirit, for they are to be dicerned spiritually." Those that reniegue there is a God, are speaking from a different spirit, from a dead one spiritually according to John 3. The human mind cannot comprehend spiritual things. Now, weird as it sounds, they accept the universal teachings of universalism, a Bhuddist form of religion that says that god is every living organism, and many more crayzy things. Yet, we Christians love them all. Our job will always be as Joshuas, to take the land and deal with the six mundane tribes animalistic mundane mindsets. The authority and the power to deal with it all has already being paid for with The Saviors blood (Mark 10:19). Again, Roy GREAT JOB, God has yet many great and mighty things that you will be right in the midst.
Do you flog yourself nightly in your "special closet"?
You're almost worse than islam-bot.
Or he could be shot dead in Florida by a "stand your ground" shooter.
Stay away from children, You should not be allowed to own or have in your possession any type of firearm.
Please seek help for your delusions you are a potential threat to society.
You did fabulous kiddo.
Absolutely
He did a fabulous job of making the rest of the class look bad. If a kid that stupid and presumtuous is at the top of the class, well...
He did a fabulous job of making the rest of the class look bad. If a kid that stupid and presumptuous is at the top of the class, well...
Your comment is awaiting moderation. (I see our troll is back)
He did a fabulous job of being a defiant disrespectful little puke and an even better job of showing his lack of respect for the Constitution...if he doesn't want to abide by it, then he should locate a theocratic country cause the one resides in is Secular!
He should not have prayed, because then there will be a line of people with different religions also wanting to pray. You have to respect all religions but respect is not causing conflict by praying for a certain religion in public. I understand why religion should not be part of our goverment. Its a personal belief. This country is land of the free, free to believe in what you want to believe in, but don't push other people to listen to your prayer unless you are going to make everyone listen to prayers from other religions.
I rather hear this student say, he be believed in him self and believing in him self got him to where he was, which is true.
Creationists/bible thumpers..... Doogie too.
Biblical Marriage Not Defined Simply As One Man, One Woman: Iowa Religious Scholars' Op-Ed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/biblical-marriage-iowa-scholars-op-ed_n_3397304.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
And follow the money game................BIG money for the church ..............no fairy in the sky required or needed !
The bible is BS
It's the only way.
Notice everyone was clapping. I don't see many REAL liberals like the posters on here in real life. I see more Tea Party, etc. people in real life out in work place. Most people are religious, even when I work for companies full of people from Detroit and LA, they were all religious.
Most of the athiest people are angry at the world and unemployed at home with nothing to do, that is why they get on here and spit out their hate to all the world. Kind of sad, really.
Maybe CNN will put you on the tube so you can show all the research you have compiled to prove this sh.t you are spouting.
You are a liar, and a lame one at that.
Matty, I'm not angry at the world. I am disappointed that despite separation of church and state the religious want to impose their beliefs onto the rest of us. Not only did this deluded youth lie about what he would say, you would not be supporting him if he'd been promoting a religion other than yours.
@Matthew
The majority of the people responsible for advancing science and technology, most especially life sciences, are irreligious.
Do you think the average biochemist is unemployed and angry?
"History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it. "
– Robert Heinlein
'Most of the athiest people are angry at the world and unemployed at home with nothing to do'
and that comment makes you both a hater and a liar.
I am sorry but your bible has condemned you to hell for that. not my rules you understand. never mind hey?
"I don't see many REAL liberals like the posters on here in real life"
He was in bumfuk South Carolina you moron. Of course you didn't see anything but bible toting inbreeds.
I suggest you look at the numbers of atheists that are unemployed and compare to unemployed religious people.
Also check out the average IQ of both and levels of education.
you can apologize anytime, if you were a good Christian you would sooner then later.
@matt: hey i'm atheist, i work for a fortune 500 bank in nyc.................so wrong on your fairytale and wrong about where atheists are located.
not to mention seeing religious out number non-religious that would imply far more of you than of us unemployed. 🙂 good day
Well, this kid is going to have to be a preacher, or be anonymously self-employed. Nobody should trust him to follow through and keep his promises...
For those of you who are all for this kid pushing the Christian agenda, would you also be ok if he gave a speech that promoted only the Democratic party? You feel that would be appropriate?
Your reasoning skills are also lacking.
Your comprehension skills are lacking.
Unless a class is discussing politics, which was not the case the answer is no.
Ah, the magical invisible faerie in the sky stuff again....maybe Roy is smart, but his reasoning skills are very lacking.
What would have happened if a student had included in his/her speech "There is no God, so rely on your own conscience to do right." Would the religious right have accepted that lack of seperation of church and state.
It's much easier to be the bully when you are in the majority.
It's beyond easy for them to bully. That's what they just can't understand. When you post comments or say things about praying for people or bless you ect...you're bringing up god. If you aren't ready to have your faith challenged than keep it to yourselves.
Beware those who claim to know the will of God, for they will be feel completely justified in every action they take.
GOD is truth absolute, and will of GOD is, to be truth full all the time, any thing else is of hindu evil ism, criminal self center ism, way of not GOD, bt hindu Lucifer, criminal secular, self centered, god of hindu atheist, criminal self centered by faith.
The religious right – the largest bully group in the U.S. We can only hope that one day they will stop persecuting others.
Do good for good's sake, not for God's sake.
Nothing is good, without GOD, because truth absolute is LORD GOD of universe.
Islam bot hurt in the headism. Lacking education on U.S. lawism, and pretty much everything else as well ism.
This is how it is with the religious. They want YOU to follow the rules and the laws, but not themselves. This narcissistic twit decided that God himself wanted a prayer recited in direct violation of the orders of the school administrator. Typical Christian. Whatever he wants to do feels like God's direct order and everybody else can just lump it. It's all about him and his faith and his wishes and desires and he gets to inoculate himself with a directive from a non-existent invisible friend.
To the wide eyed armies of the faithful... keep your absurb beliefs in an invisible man who lives in the sky to yourself.
What this kid did was completely inappropriate. The more mankind clings on to the absurdity of belief in some supreme bieng, the longer it will take us as a species to advance.
What would you contend to be meaningful possible advancements in a society like ours, besides the elimination of religion?
Why should other people have to keep their beliefs quiet just because you think they are absurd? Will you keep to yourself all of your beliefs that others find absurd?
It may take us longer, but I think it's crucial that we learn to overcome our differences (cultural, racial, s_exual, and religious), and that will lead to true advancement. It's a mighty 'pipe-dream' of mine, but hey.....
Man can keep religion in my eyes, but it should be personal, and without details. We should've never traveled down the arrogant path of saying, "I know" when it comes to God. We don't even know what goes on in the center of black holes (which we can identify) let alone, the Creator of Reality.
Christianity drove most of advancement of mankind with the Renaissance, Age of Discovery, Age of Imperialism, etc. Monasteries were the first Universities in Europe. Please read history. Funny how since Europe has gone away from their conservative Christian routes, they have been declining.
How about overcoming the needless deaths of children because their parents believe faith can heal them.
@Matthew
The reason the Church is associated with scholastic advancement in the past is becuase clergy were one of the few classes of people who were free from having to do work in the sweaty, dreary sense of the word.
Countries with a high percentage of nonbelievers are among the freest, most stable, best-educated, and healthiest nations on earth. When nations are ranked according to a human-development index, which measures such factors as life expectancy, literacy rates, and educational attainment, the five highest-ranked countries - Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands - all have high degrees of nonbelief. Of the fifty countires at the bottom of the index, all are intensly religious. The nations with the highest homicide rates tend to be more religious; those with the greatest levels of gender equality are the least religious.
"Christianity drove most of advancement of mankind with the Renaissance, Age of Discovery, Age of Imperialism, etc"
You forgot about the dark ages. You know, that period where the church ruled with absolute authority.
"Monasteries were the first Universities in Europe"
Yes, and for centuries the church refused to allow any non clergy to read.
"Please read history"
Pretty sound advice.
"Funny how since Europe has gone away from their conservative Christian routes, they have been declining"
Funny that the most prosperous countries in Europe are also the most secular.
Throughout history thoughtful people have attempted to differentiate between religion and cults. Most people would agree that faith healing is an example of the latter.
I'd be delighted to start with the faith healers. Lets get laws passed to allow prosecution of faith healer parents when they medically neglect their children.
A couple of the idiot christian faith healers just got tossed back in jail here in Philly.
After the death of their second child.
Humanist. It appears, according to derp, we already have those laws
And JFCanton, moving the goalposts is a wimpy strategy.
@Bill Deacon. You managed to slink off like a coward rather than respond to this. I'm not letting you off the hook.
I will keep trolling you until you respond.
"it cuts both ways derp. When HBC accuses someone of mental illness, it's up to her to make the case. Not the other way around"
So you are saying that there is no god?
Or are you saying you are not sure whether there is a god or not?
Because you have certainly never ever offered a shred of proof of any god.
By your own logic, you have failed to fulfill "proof is required by he who states".
Thanks, you have just proven the complete invalidity of anyone who has ever asserted that there is a higher power. I appreciate you backing me up like that
31 states have child abuse religious exemptions.
So the kid says, “I wanted to stand up for God,” he explained Wednesday. “This is what God wanted me to do.”
What does God sound like for those that 'hear' God? Or is it indistinguishable from any other thought in the ol' noggin? And.... why don't we believe the crazies that committ horrible crimes and say, “This is what God wanted me to do.” If you need a prime example, just look at Abraham's test of faith. Nowadays, Ole' Abe would be in a looney bin, and his son taken away from him.
As they say, one person thinks he talks with God, we call him a lunatic. A dozen do, we call them a cult. A billion do, we call them Christians.
Abraham is a good example of someone who did not commit a horrible crime with respect to his son.
@ Bob Bales - But Bob, Abraham WOULD HAVE killed his son, to prove his faith. God stopped it. Not Abe. Abraham was ready to slit his boy's throat. And that was a pretty sadistic test, if you ask me. But then again, I'm just a silly ole' mortal with feelings.
Since when is attempted pre-meditated murder not a crime bob?
'Abraham WOULD HAVE killed his son, to prove his faith'
and why would a god need to test anything, surely he already knows?
bit like the whole 'dont eat the apple' thing and then had to apparently 'discover' what they had done. discover what? didnt you know that 1) it was happening, and/or 2) that it was going to happen?
Please do some research on the Jewish interpretation if you feel the idea to bring up Abraham/Issac.
@JFCanton – Well.... therein lies another problem altogether. 'Interpretations'. Humans... if they EVER had the truth, know exactly how to take a good thing and foul it all up. I'm not going to look up the 'Jewish interpretation'. Wasn't King James' interpretation 'da laaaw'? Geez........ this, and countless other reasons are why I'm agnostic.
......... "Jewish interpretation". Where's God's interpretation?!? Something that counts across the board....
@cedar rapids – The ancients had to know they had holes in this story. An Omnipotent, All-Knowing Being gives me 'free will'. And it doesn't know what I'll choose? ......yeah right. And if you say, "Oh, God knows everything", then how is it 'free will'. God knows me, before God made me, and knows my end as well. So where's there any 'free will'? It's all planned out by the All-Father.
The rights to believe upon issuances of rightfulness is not found in matters of religious non-beliefs. For non-religious empathies have little worthiness regarding rightfulness issues. For what goodness can come from non-beliefs? Where do non-believers make their claims of godlessness to be withstood by the myriads of God-believers who all do allow places for non-believers to live their lives without Godly arbitrations? God cannot forbid but our attempts to forbade the sensations of Godliness is what atheists find themselves troubled with. People who want to believe in a Being whose superiority is beyond human comprehensions tells us that our humanisms' conditions are ladled with multitudes of impersonalized subjectivities of ever God-censored ambiguities and deniable augments sanctified in liable justifications. God will forever be inside our beings upon an atomic level of spatial recognitions beyond many folks' willful conscious awareness.
Hail Satan brother! These people wouldn't let a Wiccan or a Witch do this and they surely would never allow a Satanist to do it, so it's wrong, wrong, wrong for them to do it. Trust me, if Christians had their real way they'd still be slaughtering unbelievers and infidels. They are no different than radical Muslims, just weaker willed.
Uh oh, someone threw up their word salad again. Clean-up on page 30, stat!
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Speakee Engrish!
Huh?
loonylamb: Did you forget to take your meds again???
Tea Bagger Id10t,
The ebbs and flows of humanisms in quantifiable minded perceptivities leaves humane conditioning becoming as accumulative segregations within the societal foundations of nationalistic empathies. The depths of atomized reasoning is faulted. The heights of humane differential isms gives breadth to the social enclaves whose very ambitions are found to be in multiples of servile allotments in youthful generations continuations onto the very fabrics of time-based rationalisms. Go Figure!
You don't believe in sasquatch because he is beyond you comprehension!
See how stupid you sound?
Truth Prevails 👿
My Word is bonded and bound. My 'meds' are a once-a-night just before bedtime thing. Your innateness underpins the overtness of my Coventry. I have found the places of Godly kingdom domains as is scripturally written for us to seek out. I understand that our bodies are heavenly domain kingdoms of the Godly which are of the atomized domiciles being the families of the Gods' residencies. Scripture has shown me and science has given me the needed clues to proclaim such a truth to be so had.
I can't tell whether lionlylamb is a bona fide christard, or an atheist hell bent on making christards look bad.
derp,
The kingdom domains of the Gods and their family generations continuation is bound up being upon the very insides of all celestial manifestations of each and every cellular life formation. "Big Foot" is a folklore as are many biblical iterations. Within the very first book of the Bible, Genesis 6:3 tells us that God is as much flesh and bones as we are and God's life span is said to be a hundred and twenty years. I for the life of me cannot understand that many of Christendom fail miserably in understanding God to be as mortal as we are. I am but one of two sons of a man named Joseph and a mother named Mary. My strength in being psychologically linked to Christ Jesus goes beyond the limits of societal rationalisms denying biblical mannerisms. To me comes the spoilage but to my brother goes all the glories when we are dead! The rest of this world will carry on never really knowing of us except for those reading my thoughts about us. I am but one son of two sons and I will be damned to hell if I didn't become my brother's faithful believer in our living ways! We depend upon each other to get by in this world's ever filling whoredom ways.
Oookaayyy
Cookoo for Cocoa Puffs.
Hey LL
Biblical Marriage Not Defined Simply As One Man, One Woman: Iowa Religious Scholars' Op-Ed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/biblical-marriage-iowa-scholars-op-ed_n_3397304.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
By the way the bible is BS so is the horn=y red beast LL.
I wonder if his father would stand by him if he'd been really honest and said that he also really fancied the English Lit. Teacher.
One need not to be in a prayer hall to pray to truth absolute GOD, all the time, but to be truth full all the time is, to be in prayer all the time to truth absolute GOD, foundation of America.
Islam bot hurting on confusing US history and lawism with obsession of hinduism.
IT's time to come and get your 27 virgins. Come home now.
NESTLE FOUNDATION OF OVALT INE
Best login troll ever!!!
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever . . . ." – Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII
@Lorri,
the phrase "wall of separation between Church & State" actually came from a letter Jefferson wrote.
Jefferson's God was quite different than the God of the proselytizing evangelist Christian of today:
Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.
(Thomas Jefferson, from Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785)
Even the Father of the Consti-tution spoke of the wall:
The Civil Govt, tho' bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability and performs its functions with complete success, Whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State.
(James Madison)
I love it when christards quote Jefferson.
He so loathed christianity that he actually went to the trouble of writing his own bible.
99.9% of all American christards have never evn heard of the Jeffersonian Bible.