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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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Tom a Comedy Gold update !
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/07/piers-morgan-live-rewind-bringing-religion-into-school-the-nsa-data-mining-program-and-what-to-do-about-it/#comment-191620
The kid is just immature. He showed no respect for the privilege he had for a platform to speak on.
Just another Christian HYPOCRITE who ignored Biblical commands not to make a spectacle of praying.
Exactly. Nothing more than drama and a need for attention and praise.
Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; meditate on and talk of all His wondrous works and devoutly praise them! 1 Chronicles 16: 9
amen
Bob,
Skip the random verses. We can all quote verses supporting slavery if you'd like. Stay on topic.
ToHisPraise, amen! Let the praises be known among all men. Roy Costner used the podium to praise Him.
Hey Bob..can not forget faith you know.
The MATRIX faith........................great mind game..............all between the ears.
Hey bible thumpers it is all between your ears that red horn-y beast.........look what the little blue box has to offer .too !
My take: A word to Christians – Be nice – CNN Belief Blog ...
religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/09/my-take-a-word-to-christians-be-nice
Feb 09, 2013 · Hey all creationists ... No horn-y red beast needed ... bible thumpers ? Human Y Chromosome Much Older Than Previously Thought.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=Hey+bible+thumpers+it+is+all+between+your+ears+that+red+horn-y+beast.&form=HPNTDF&pc=HPNTDF&src=IE-SearchBox
Other links there too faith at Bing.
"Roy Costner used the podium to praise Him."
No. He used an audience and a special event to polish his own halo. It's a wonder he didn't strain a muscle patting himself on the back.
What a shameful display of ego.
"Sing praises to him.....and if he catches you lip sinking, you are going to burn forever"
syncing?
Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God has highly exalted him [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Amen, one of my favorites. PTL
Oy vey.
Wow, Bob. That's really awe inspiring! Thanks for the meaningless bullshit. We really get all goose-bumpy over your bible babble.
Spend a lot of time on your knees, Bob? Good practice for eternity at the feet of Jeebus?
Psalms 99:5 Exalt the LORD our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!
Exalt? Why?
Psalms 29:2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.
Indeed. That is the purpose of every living thing, to glorify God. It is the very purpose and meaning of life. God Bless
What is the purpose of God?
Why does an omnipotent, omniscient being need praise and glorification? Insecure?
That's our only purpose in life? To kowtow to some invisible, imaginary jerk who needs to be worshipped? No thanks. I'll pass and be much happier.
And you won't wear out the knees in your pants.
Psalms 8:1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Jesus showed us the way: "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The Son of God came to this earth 2000 years ago and revealed this truth to us, yet many try to earn God's favor some other way. We cannot. There is only one way to the Father, that is through the Son. By accepting His finished work on the cross on our behalf by faith, we will be born again (born spiritually), and will have eternal life. God Bless
Indeed! that is the message of hope and eternal life. God bless.
i do not seek heaven. i do not fear hell.
do you folks seriously desire ETERNAL life?
allowing someone else to take the punishment you deserve is about the most immoral thing one can do.
but, the snivelling christians lap it up. so much for morality
Dear Sam,
It is not about morals. If we just needed a better moral code then we wouldn't need Jesus. Jesus may have spoke in parables to show the truths about human beings; not to teach us morals.
Sincerely,
Those paying attention
Dear Sadvice,
This is good, because Jesus and God didn't invent the moral compass, and indeed, God ignored it many times to let "His" world die, and repopulate via incest. I can't think of a worse case of immorality.
Sincerely,
Those who are rational with a FUNCTIONING moral compass.
It must be awful to be an atheist who believes there is an objective morality. Unless of course you think you're the one who holds it.
It is as if he thinks he is God.
And, yes, he does act like he holds the key to objective morality. We call that being 'holier than thou".
i do not think i am god
i do find the hypocrisy of those who purport to speak for god amusing
"And, yes, he does act like he holds the key to objective morality. We call that being 'holier than thou"."
Are both you and Bill complete morons? Of course morality is subjective. We can create a machine designed for more efficient chicken head popping and yet you think atheists believe morality is objective? Of course it's subjective, and humans are the subjects. Everything we know and think about morality is subjective. It's our opinion and has evolved along with the social group in humans as a means for survival and has existed far far longer than any book or scroll that may have eventually written down these subjective morals. Humans have been refining those subjective rules for thousands of years and are only now accepting that those they once considered no more than animals based on their skin color or native culture are infact humans deserving of the same moral rights as any other human. The fact that human culture can be traced back at least to their cave drawings over 40,000 years ago shows that human social groups which require some level of behavioral standard to have existed means basic morality pre-dates the bible by at least 35,000 years and obviously longer when you look back to our even earlier ancestors.
I don't think the Bible or Christianity is about morals, like Sam seems to say.
I'll let you and Sam pat each other on the back for being morally better than the rest of us.
Sadvice, then you are in the minority; most Christians look to the Bible as the defining book of morality. And most Christians believe that God gave humans morals; without God, there would be no morals.
I don't agree, but this is the argument I hear the most; atheists (and indeed, anyone who doesn't believe specifically in the Judeo-Christian God) are inherently immoral.
Yea, I don't agree with those Christians. But God asks me to love them, too!
Slight correction Akira. Christianity doesn't divide people into one group that is moral and one that is not. Christianity holds that ALL men are immoral and that the law (moral code, whatever) proves that to us. I say that thought has virtue merely by the fact that we, as a group, cannot even decide on what is morally right or not. How can we then lay claim to a life of moral certainty? We cannot and the law proves this.
Good points, Bill.
I've heard that if we just simply needed a better moral code or philosophy, than we wouldn't of needed Jesus.
"Christianity holds that ALL men are immoral "
Of course. Can't sell anyone the cure if they do not believe they have the disease
Without guilt, Christianity is dead in the water
Did you get deployed to a war zone, kill a few people, and take their things. Don't worry, we have a verse for that.
GodFreeNow
"I think any sane person would rationally question their experience with the supernatural including the question of one's own sanity. The laws of physics are laws because they are not broken. If they appear to be, then we must first question the instruments used to measure our experiment. The human mind and body is highly flawed and untrustworthy. It's not an insult to question the reality as it appears in your head. It's reasonable."
GFN I agree with you completely. and this was the natural step of ligic and judgment that you would have to go through. When you break it all down and critique it.
you happen to be talking about the laws of physics. A spiritual God, does not have to use physics to appear, in the invisible, with a supernatural voice.
Case in point. my dreams.
When i have a dream written down where i toured a house, and out back there was an above ground pool, with a deck around it, and then a privacy fence at the edge of the deck, ..........when i allready have it written down in the middle of the night.............and then two days later my cell mate sits down with a piece of paper, and its a drawing, a blue print of a house,, with an above ground pool with a deck and a privacy fence.......... and this happens after all the other ones had allready happened- the other eight revelations.......which also involved other people,, .........................then it is time to recognize and admit, that only God can influence through the brain of other people, through spiritual means.
This is a sovereign God. and He is risen.
Jehovah Shammah The Lord Provides.
Austin
The Lord will not rise up from the atomic abyss for it is us who will fall upon one's death, back again into the voided chasms of atomized spatial cosmologies.
Shove your above-ground-pool up your ass, Austin. You never had any such dream at all. Never.
Unless you can post a description of the dreams you HAVE, now, before any subsequent "related" (and i use the term loosely) event occurs, you're lying about the dreams you had and you're lying about the events that occurred later.
Ah, Austin's dreams.....the end result of an alcohol damaged brain
Austin? A liar? Say it ain't so......
"Zec 13:8 And it shall come to pass, [that] in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off [and] die; but the third shall be left therein."
Poor widdle dust balls. You will be resurrected, bullies.
God is very clear on his stand on injustice and human freedom.
@Bible
You said, "God is very clear on his stand on injustice and human freedom."
Yup, it will accept an almost infinite amount of the former, and have none of latter.
Just because something is in the Bible, doesn't mean God approves of it.
thats a good point, in fact the old testament reveals every evil king, and every man as fallen. whos deeds were not good and in need of atonement.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/06/09/non-religious-doughnuts/
Good read! Reminds me not to take myself to seriously.
For Christians please read this:
If you as a father or mother has to choose one of the below two choices, please tell me which one you will choose:
1-all your kids are to die.
Or
2-You'll be beaten to death.
Normally and logically all of you will choose the second one.
Why that choice? Because dying for one time is better than dying every day.
Those who lost their kids are dying every day to the rest of their life.
Also Those who are sick with dangerous diseases are dying every day.
Those who lost their wives or husbands or beloveds are dying every day.
And too many others are suffering and dying every hour because of the pain of the soul not the body.
Actually the suffering body is nothing comparing with the suffering soul.
Actually That concept destroying your faith from the base……………how?
We can ask for how many hours the Christ suffered? Two hours? three hours? ten hours?
Actually If he was sick for many years, or if he lost his family or if he lost much of his beloveds and dears or if he passed all these things then we can say that he suffered for the human kind.
But suffering by beaten for few hours for all the human kind for all the time a little child can not believe it.
That is why you can find too much atheists in your sociaty because what they found in Christianity is against the logic and the brain.
If the forgiveness is by beaten, then what a cheap price for forgiveness.
English is not your forte' I see... or punctuation to make your thoughts clear...
NEE!...NEE!...NEE!...
I don't want to be beaten. So, are all my children to die? This is a sad day indeed.
What about the virgin birth, the miracles, the resurrection and the ascension into heaven?
The real Tom
I wish your family cared enough about you to get you some mental treatment. Have a delusional life.
Tom , do you really think that if someone experienced the living God, that they should be treated as mentally ill? an medicated? that someone would tell you the truth and you would have to assume that they are delusional and force them into mental/ atheist medicating psyciatry ................this would be a spiritual as.sasination.
Do you want to work for the devil?
I think any sane person would rationally question their experience with the supernatural including the question of one's own sanity. The laws of physics are laws because they are not broken. If they appear to be, then we must first question the instruments used to measure our experiment. The human mind and body is highly flawed and untrustworthy. It's not an insult to question the reality as it appears in your head. It's reasonable.
Austin,
"The real Tom" would rather play the devil's advocate. 🙁 She (Tom) just loves to play the belief blog bully! 👿
Topher, is that me?
GodFreeNow wrote "I think any sane person would rationally question their experience with the supernatural including the question of one's own sanity. The laws of physics are laws because they are not broken. If they appear to be, then we must first question the instruments used to measure our experiment. The human mind and body is highly flawed and untrustworthy. It's not an insult to question the reality as it appears in your head. It's reasonable."
Sanity is a relevancy of learned cognitive persistency. Insanities are perverse cognitions of one's irregular relevancies. Gays are such perverted cognitive perseverance orientations of uncommon relationships that nowadays are becoming a saneness of societal whoremongers in a world ever being filled with whoredom ways.
@G F N "....."
Spirituality, which the Scientific Community has established that humans have an impulse for, is a metaphysical property/intuitive awareness that we CAN NOT objectively characterize like we do tactile property. Humanities are greatly concerned with/involved in Spirituality and view it as a positive aspect!
Now, when someone tackles a person's spirituality, like I see on this blog, in Humanities, that is viewed as a Defamation of Character!
Austin – I wonder what you opinion would be of someone who has experienced the presence of Krishna, or Allah, or one of the saints, etc. And by the way, someone who doesn't believe in your god is also not going to believe in your devil.
Austintasia, you're not some Joan of Arc. You're a mentally ill man who can't distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy. Look at Loopy Vicky's posts and see the future. That is the person YOU will be in another couple of decades. And HE is supposedly getting treatment!
Want to kill your Jewish neighbor? We have a verse for that.
which verse pervert?
Topher, is that me?
Why do you all seem more against Christianity than the other major religions?
I think that the reason it appears to be this way is because it is Christianity is the one that is shoved down the throats of the public. Part of this is that the belief system requires their adherents to evangelize and part of it is that they are the dominant religion in the United States (which is very likely where most of the posters live)
Why do there appear to be more Christians on this site than any other religion?
I'm guessing there are more Christians who are on this site than of other faiths.
For me, it's because it's the religion I am the most familiar with. And the one that started me to question whether man actually knows anything about God.
sam stone, "I think that the reason it appears to be this way is because it is Christianity is the one that is shoved down the throats of the public."
What a bold-faced lie! "No elder Christian of intellectual hindsight will ever willingly shove their religious convictions down another's throat!"
Tell that to a catholic priest. Oh, you said that it was religious convictions that they weren't shoving down choir boys throats.
Nope, just their peni.
Honey BDC,
Your mixing and matching dialogue is a mental onslaught where pedophile priesthoods are brought to light in spite of the many who are not pedophile priests. How does one sleep knowing things the way you do dare want to know? Still, the whoedom ways of worldly affairs find their roots wherever there is weaknesses to be found. Be then strong in one's faithfulness and seek not the faithlessness of the perverted ones.
That's whoredom ways
Satan is against Christ, and for every other religion.
Because mommy made them go to Sunday School and its the only way to get back at her.
BECAUSE my jerk face of a mother makes me go to church each Sunday when I don't want to go.
Christians... sheesh!
"What a bold-faced lie! "No elder Christian of intellectual hindsight will ever willingly shove their religious convictions down another's throat!""
Like legislating against gay marriage?
Austin: Have another drink, boy.
Want to have relations with your sister? No problem.
What about my daughter?
It's only okay if it's your daughter who get's you drunk first...
Your Daughter? Only if she gets you drunk and takes advantage of you.
And it's always okay to sleep with your sisters, as long as they is the only breedable females within yer Kentucky holler.
If your brother dies without an heir it is your DUTY to impregnate his widow. NICE!
"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.
I think it's obvious to anyone with eyes and a brain that his son was usiung this as political theatre. If he wasn't and was just including the prayer in his speech, why the need to tear up his prepared notes? This was nothing but a political statement on how some conservatives feel they are being attacked because they are being sidelined. If they aren't in your face with their faith then they feel they must be under attack. Were any religious folk in this town being discriminated against? Was the school so secular as to make him feel like an outcast and that he needed to bring some light to the issue of Christians being ostrasized in public schools? The premise is laughable on it's face. This kid did this for one reason and one reason only, attention.
Happy Atheist wrote the above post for one reason and one reason only, attention.
Thank you for pointing out the one problem you have with my post, that it came from me.
Oh the attention of it all! Give yourself a break H.A., for your frank Word is truly unworthy of your own attention mongering whimsical accolades. But what the hoot do I know? I am a klutz!
Another typical CNN atheist, they are willing dish it out but can not take it.
PP, what is there to take? Atheists are pushing anything on anybody.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/06/hear-what-valedictorian-said-for-cheers/comment-page-26/#comment-2404502
"willing dish it out but can not take it."
?
I had to go to work for a bit but I did not even know someone had dished it out. Where did they dish it? If you are talking about LL's diarrhea word salad then you must not be familiar with LL who requires no real responses, just maybe a towel for his chin.