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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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Next article please.
Stop with your HATE Mother F–ker. Better yet stfu.
Who be hate?
Who be hate? What kind of language is that? I was replying to that dip S–t DyslexicDog. He is truly an Idiot.
You used a brand new post to "reply" to somebody? Who's the idiot, again?
@ cpt
Probably you.
Alrlight Dyslexic doG, NOW what did you say! 🙂
@Cpt
If you would have read farther back you would see.
@ Cpt
Maybe you should change your name to oblivious instead of obvious...
@ap
If possible, could you be a little less boring?
It sounds like anthony parks had a bad day and came here to kick the dog...
(I'll bet DD wouldn't mind taking it for an innocent live pooch)
Are you supposedly Christian, anthony, or are you spiking smack again? You're all over the place with your posts, dipwad.
@ jack
I dont think i ever stated i was one way or the other did i? dipwad
We come hoping for an invigorating discussion on the meaning of life, and what do we get? Some valet wanna-be (anthony parks).
@ Cpt
Truth hirts doesn't it BOY.
Anthony, there are no motherfuckers here. You calm the hell down before someone tells your mom.
@ Billy
The only invigoration you get is Jacking it with Jack to your Punkass boy Dogs posts.
anthony be careful or the hom.os will give you the butt flu.
When Anthony posts I can hear a whiny, bitchy crying noise in the distance...
That's a joke right?
Oh, look, DDog, ap thinks I am you. That's gross, ap, I wouldn't do anything with JD. Now talk to me about some Jameson and we might be able to begin a discussion.
@ Dog,Jack ,Billy and the rest of you hate filled F-cks
People come on this site to Debate and or talk, not be called names. So i ask you, how does it feel when someone attacks YOU?
I don't know, anthony – we're still waiting for the supposed attack. Is that what you were trying to do? Maybe you should come back when your balls drop. Go sit in the corner and think about what you've done.
Are you talking about where DDog says "If I was powerful enough to have created the universe, I wouldn't let three innocent girls be held and abused for 10 years. That’s the difference between me and your God."
What's so hateful about that? It's a very reasonable observation deserving of an answer I might add.
Speaking of butthurt, here's Salero21 to complete the circle jerk with anthony. What a couple of fucktards.
I can make my balls dance up and down. It feels funny. Farting and giggling is good, too. School is out.
Summer is here
@ dippy
OMG the spellcheck police have arrived. F–k off Dippy sh-t...
Claim: anthony parks and Salero21 are a "couple of fucktards"
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Billy cant spell Dyslexic, so he uses D dog. lmfao. Dippy sh-t.
Shh shhh, down boy.
Actually, I'm glad you alerted me to these posts by Dyslexic doG, ap. These are great things to consider. This one is pretty good too:
If I was powerful enough to have created the universe, I wouldn't let a man shoot innocent little elementary school children. That’s the difference between me and your God.
Peace Dogs i am outta here, you guys go on and spread the hate.
Gotta go suck some d_ick.
@ Billy
It wouldn't matter if there was a God or not ,People, Not GOD do cruel things and say cruel things to each other..
anthony parks:
"It wouldn't matter if there was a God or not ,People, Not GOD do cruel things and say cruel things to each other.."
You do have a point there.
In all likelihood, we are on our own here on this speck in the universe. Let's do the best that we can with it.
True, "What if". Humans would have greater cooperation and affinity with one another if, rather than attempting to interpret what has never been evident, they simply address the growing issues before them that are evident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmLjVD2VAws
@What if
Jesus said I am the way, how about we just follow that way?
page 42
Meaning of Life.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130610113012.htm
People Are Overly Confident in Their Own Knowledge, Despite Errors
June 10, 2013 — Overprecision - excessive confidence in the accuracy of our beliefs - can have profound consequences, inflating investors' valuation of their investments, leading physicians to gravitate too quickly to a diagnosis, even making people intolerant of dissenting views. Now, new research confirms that overprecision is a common and robust form of overconfidence driven, at least in part, by excessive certainty in the accuracy of our judgments.
Right. So the last thing you would want to do is make judgments about something that you can't see or detect in any way.
Like when someone claims nothing made everything, the entire universe, in a fraction of a second and never again, with no proof, no evidence of nothing doing anything, or nothing saying anything, or anyone claiming nothing told them anything, or nothing doing anything for anyone, ever... not one person saying nothing did anything for them, or told them anything about what it did... nothing.
A universe forming once and never again, takes a controller with incredible energy, all powerful, almighty, that controller is God.
@required
The common argument, “well, what caused the Big Bang?” with the implication that, because we have only theories and no iron clad explanation for the Big Bang yet, [the Christian] god must have caused it – does not make sense to us. “I don’t know” does not equal “god” to us, much less the Judeo-Christian god. We feel the answers to such a question are much more likely to be found in Einstein’s equations, quantum physics, large particle accelerators and radio telescopes than in Genesis Chapters 1 through 20. We’re crazy aren’t we?
@required
I don't know how the universe came to be, but I do know that god is invisible and undetectable. If you need to believe in big, invisible sky-daddy-wizards who made everything by speaking magic spells, go for it. I'll stick with my honest answers of "we don't know" and "god is invisible."
required,
"A universe forming once and never again,"
How do you know it only formed once? How do you know it will never form again?
We don't know what we don't know yet.
Your tidy little package with a bow on top may be enough for you, but hooray that others didn't stop with their tidy packages of "an angry god lives in the volcano and causes it to erupt" and "a god throws lightning bolts down at us when he's mad", etc. etc.!
The answers to such questions, more like speculation about such questions. We must not need to know or he would have told us, but it is fun to wonder & speculate.
Now for the important questions. Do you love God with everything you are? Do you love your neighbor as yourself?
Can't love god because he doesn't exist. Love my neighbor, though.
Christians?
Why DOES God need us to worship him and constantly tell him how wonderful he is? Why does he get so petulant when he is not receiving constant saccharine adoration?
Isn't that behavior a bit pathetic?
Because man made god
You got it backwards dog. Worship fills our need, not God's.
Bill,
If you came upon a primitive people that were worshiping an idol, asked one of them why they were worshiping the idol, and the person gave you your answer above, what would you think?
@Bill
You're so retarded. You be that dog and go with your worship bs.
lots of stuff fills our needs. for some, it is worship. it seems that in the case of worship, it is the worship itself, not the target of the worship.
sam? Is that you? That's actually a very insightful comment. I'm shocked.
the true God grovel before me Bill Deacon, it is what you are good at. Love me with all your heart, you have a lot to be forgiven for. You just cannot declare you have won when all around you see what a loser you are. Baring your soul and ass to some priest just doesn't cut it so far Bill, try harder.
When you're in heaven.. just think – you'll never stop worshiping because that's what you want.
An eternity, with no moment spared because you love god so much that you'll never die starving while worshiping. You'll neve want to go and read that materialistic book that you didn't finish off when you were alive. You won't get any sports. You won't be driving that heaven's new model car. Or that next generation Ipad Heaven version 4.
Just think of the endless "job" of worshiping. You couldn't wait to get into heaven so that you can say to yourself - > "This is what I have always dreamt about – and I here I am, worshiping; all the time."
bill: well, i had to aim low for some folks
Being able to visit with the ultimate being in all existence over all time... hmm....
The most creative, witty, intelligent, loving, forgiving, caring, most dynamic in all characteristics... hmm....
A being so powerful, almighty, able to know all time before it's happened, able to consider all people that ever lived.... hmm....
Do you really need to think this over? You couldn't fall in love with the ultimate being of all time?
Are you nuts?
@ sam stone
*snerk*
Gee, I don't know,
Nice fantasy you've got there. It sure isn't "Bible God", though.
How the hell does worship, especially of some unproven entity, fulfill a human need? I sure as hell don't feel any need to grovel on my knees and bow my head down in some "worshipatorium" to feel good the rest of the day. And I sure as hell question the sanity of people who do have that need.
They are free to have their fantasy godgasms, but it's best kept private, and certainly cannot be declared as fact.
It is a good start at a description, but no where near adequate. The people that reject God are missing out big time.
It's where you want to say how much you love God, but you're restrained by words, and people that don't listen or believe him.
Gee I don't know.
I could not have said it any better. Impossible not to fall in love with God.
TODO,
" Impossible not to fall in love with God."
Which God? Bible God? - the God of Abraham? That thing is mostly a monster.
answer
I love God just to Love. I love God to share my heart. To give even a small percentage back for what he continually gives me. I do not love God to get into heaven. God holds me in a way that fills me. I feel his love through my entire being. God loves in the hard moments when anyone else would walk away. Even when he should walk away he gives love where it was not earned.
I understand you do not but you should know it is not about getting into heaven. It is love that matters.
I know what you mean, TODO. I have a small Yorkshire terrier. He's a little monster, but we all love him like crazy. Maybe you should get a dog, TODO.
AFK
One God. Many perceptions. Ever changing.
A frayed knot. One human being many perceptions.
Tomtom the other one
Aww, you are almost as cute as my puppies. Just like puppies we need warmth to be alive.
How creepy! This todo creepo sounds like he tortures puppies to death. Someone check his basement for bodies.
God gave up on our universe the day Christianity was formed. If god was around, he would have crushed these harmful religions. We are on our own, and religion is not the answer.
Jeff wrote, "We are on our own, and religion is not the answer."
The answer? The answer to what might I ask?
To me religion is a set of individual beliefs that are made proven, becoming yet malleable as one ages. Anyone's religion is to be as a personalized enigma of sociologic conditionings enamored around memorandums of fleeting memories. Therefore, religion is one's Life so live your religion as if your Life were depended upon it! Go Figure!
Let's assume for the sake of arguement, that this week there will be at least one healthy child born to a rich, loving american family, one child born to devout Islams in Iran, and one child born infected with HIV in Darfur.
Who decides which soul gets which baby?
Sole...............where the rubber meet the road.
Oops.............meets.
I've always wondered the same thing. I always picture god putting a hand up over his eyes and just randomly pointing/zapping.
I also like the idea that god makes all of these souls on a continuous basis even though he gets thousands who enter heaven and hell on a daily basis.
The idea of reincarnation makes sense because at least the soul is going to waste, but the christian god seems to be the worst sort of consumer there is. Tsk Tsk
After 2014 a bureaucrat in the office of Affordable Health Care will decide.
@Bill
Mind explaining to me how a bureaucrat can decide where a person is born and to what parents?
Bill's trying to make a thinly veiled reference to his favorite subject – abortion!
@ Science
You sir are an IDIOT drunk. Go sober up and maybe just maybe post something someone will actually read.
Slamming some black tar heroin again, anthony parks? My, my.
Hey ap.............or sole can be replaced or repaired on bottom of shoe.
Martian Clay Contains Chemical Implicated in the Origin of Life,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130610220132.htm
Meteorites (carbon – 14) and WATER made us aye.
If I were god... I would have enjoyed the solitude and silence and not feel the need to create a race of slaves to worship and serve me.
amen!!!
You are so wrong it's ridiculous. Loving God is incredible and awe inspiring. He runs the overall, and we do our tasks. He's there, and he's the best anywhere. You're the one missing out. No complaints here, only happiness and joy.
And delusion.
required,
Signs you are in an abusive relationship:
– Monitors what you're doing all the time
– Decides things for you that you should be allowed to decide (like what to wear or eat)
– Threatens to hurt you, or your children if you don’t love him
– Blames you for his or her violent outbursts or shortcomings
– Being s.e.xually controlling
– You have an impending sense of consequence that will come if you don't "obey."
– Tells you that you are “nothing” without him and you don’t deserve his love
I think you'd better take a few more looks at that Bible of yours and the MO of that "God" character.
The God I know, saves people like the doubter above.
Take someone like that, Jesus Christ can put His Spirit where He wants. Today is the day of salvation.
@ Austin, Saves from what? I live a life a peace and joy. I love myself and others. I have no fear of death or the afterlife (if there even is such a thing. What exactly is god saving me from?
required, You don't know that a god exists, you don't know it's a male, and you haven't tried the rest so cannot make a judgement about it being the best.
austin: salvation is for slaves. have another drink
GodFree: Apparently, he is saving people from his bad old self
The depravity of some human minds that are more tolerant of 'f' bombs than they are of 'higher' power.
That is the mark of a debased mind!
I drop the F bomb at least 15 times a day.
My panties are in a bunch over this.
Drop me! DROP ME!!
Fuck you, Bob.
I would rather have students graduate in the art of dropping F bombs, that is the hallmark of a literate society. 😉
The art of cussing speaks volumes for the ways that you are involved with society and how you can apply the usage of languages.
A religious freak who can't cuss is one cvnt short of life.
My f-bombs are fucking Nucular!
:;:KA-FUCKING-BOOOOM!!!
You're welcome.
I'd do it much better.
Because obviously I *KNOW* so much more than anyone.
I mean, look at me, totally ruling the CNN Belief Message Board. The Real Tom and Science think I'm some kind of Internet God. Who needs God when you got me.
I'M GOING TO LIVE FOREVER!!!!!!
wha?
That's Fame that's gonna live forever.
IF I were god, I wouldn't make a perfect existence so fragile that just one tiny act could fvck the whole thing up.
amen!
the real God and if you think this planet is all fvcked up you should see what I did to the planet Kolob.
I would try and actually help people, instead of criticizing and ridiculing others on a faith and religion message board.
If I were concerned with honesty (unlike Christians), I'd wonder if maybe people commenting on a message board had other activities in their daily lives and I wouldn't azzume stupid sh!t just to make a stupid strawman argument.
If I were god, I'd be at least as detectable and visible as chemistry or calculus, and I wouldn't allow so many people to be so confused over my desires. I'd straighten out that sh!t.
Yea, then we could manipulate and make God into anything we want!
Sorry, Steve, it seems you posted in the wrong place. See if you can figure out which post you were replying to and answer that one.
If I was powerful enough to have created the universe, I wouldn't be so narcissistic that I would want people to worship me. That’s the difference between me and your God.
I am guessing you are convinced that other people frequently mistake you for their god?
They will ignore your contrasts because they will imagine their god to be above every need to be nice.
They love their horrible god of evil hate. They will say he is allowed to do those things and be that evil.
If I were all-powerful, and knew about a place where eternal torture was occurring, I'd destroy it. That's the difference between me and your god.
If I was powerful enough to have created the universe, I wouldn't have a hissy fit and drown the world because people didn't do what I said. That’s the difference between me and your God.
Roy Costner' valedictorian speech was
➀ Positive
➁ Encouraging
➂ Thoughtful
➃ Meaningful
➄ Widely appreciated by fellow students.
Ignore the haters, Roy! We loved your speech!
The boy, himself, however, is a liar.
Are we not to be hating crime and criminal conduct now? No, what he did was ILLEGAL. It was also WRONG.
I'm sure he's a good kid. I hope that college will help him understand that snakes can't speak Hebrew.
Unfortunately the speech was none of those things. And if he'd been Jewish, would you feel the same way? Because if you're ok with a Christian doing that, you've got to be ok with a Jew or a Muslim doing that. If his prayer was to Allah, would you still have applauded? I highly doubt it.
If I was powerful enough to have created the universe, I wouldn't allow priests to molest innocent little children. That’s the difference between me and your God.
Didn't we play this game last week and you lost?
no ... I didn't lose ... you just referenced a bunch of Christian propaganda and tried to pretend it was fact. You can't change facts and the fact is that your God does not exist. 🙂
Dyslexic doG didn't lose. And it was funnier than a Monty Python sketch.
@Secular Humanist
you are too kind sir ... too kind!
Maybe I expected more from his construct than some eighth grade humor. I thought he was going to really show us how to build a just universe but couldn't get past the problem of "how would we learn about faith, hope and love"
I am afraid that Bill is too pompous and arrogant to admit when he has lost, to stroke his own ego he must always declare victory, Chad like. Never ever admit you have been wrong, except for the murder thingy, right Bill?
Sour grapes, Bill. Sour grapes.
I doubt that Bill Deacon could come up with anything remotely as funny as the "eight grade humor" he derides. At least not intentionally.
If I was powerful enough to have created the universe, I wouldn't allow televangelists to use my name to steal money from poor people. That’s the difference between me and your God.
If I was powerful enough to have created the universe, I wouldn't let a man shoot innocent little elementary school children. That’s the difference between me and your God.