Sunday, August 23, 2015

Time To Say "No More"

At a time when nearly all news is bad, it was refreshing and hopeful to read the following.  I am posting the article in its entirety because I think it is important.  You can also read it here.

"School band told to stop performing 'How Great Thou Art'
By Todd Starnes  Published August 21, 2015

There was no halftime show under the Friday night lights at Mississippi’s Brandon High School — the marching band had been benched.

The band was ordered off the field because the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art” was a part of their halftime show — in violation of a federal court order.

“The Rankin County School Board and District Office are very saddened students will not be able to perform their halftime show they have worked so hard on this summer,” the district wrote in a statement to the Clarion Ledger newspaper.

In 2013 a student sued the district over a series of Christian meetings that had been held on school property, the newspaper reported. The district later settled the lawsuit and acknowledged they had violated the student’s First Amendment rights.

In July, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves ruled the district had violated the agreement after a Christian minister delivered a prayer at an awards ceremony.

Judge Reeves, who was appointed to the bench by President Obama, came down hard on the school district — ordering them to pay thousands of dollars in fines. He also warned the district that future violations would cost them $10,000.

“Defendants are permanently enjoined from including prayer, religious sermons or activities in any school sponsored event including but not limited to assemblies, graduations, award ceremonies, athletic events and any other school event,” the order reads.

Word about the band getting benched spread across the town quicker than kudzu. I must have received emails and Facebook messages from nearly the entire state - from Desoto County to Yazoo City.

Something must be done to right this wrong, people said. A message had to be sent to the likes of Judge Reeves. Locals  gathered in coffee shops and garages to devise their plan.

And what they did — would become known as the musical shot heard around the world.

During halftime of Friday night’s game - a lone voice began to sing the forbidden song.

“Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee,” the singer sang.

Brittany Mann was there and she witnessed the entire moment of defiance.

“We were just sitting there and then one by one people started to stand,” she told me. “At first, it started out as a hum but the sound got louder and louder.”

She said it was a “truly incredible” moment to watch hundreds of people singing together in the stadium.

“At that moment I was so proud of my town - coming together and taking a stand for something we believe in,” she said. “It breaks my heart to see where our country is going — getting farther and farther away from the Christian beliefs that our country was founded on.”

I suspect Miss Brittany wasn’t the only one who felt a sense of pride in the Magnolia State on that warm summer night.

“We may be pictured as toothless, barefoot, uneducated people around the country, but we are far from it,” nearby resident Mandy Miller told me. “I’m from Mississippi and I’m not ashamed to take a stand.”

Oh what a sight it must have been — as hundreds and hundreds of people stood together and with one voice — sent a message to Judge Reeves.

“This is the kind of thing that makes me proud to be from the South,” Miss Mandy told me. “We are getting tired of being told to sit down and shut up. People are ready to fight back.”

Miss Mandy is absolutely right. The time has come to stand up to the secularists.

The time has come to put an end to their cultural jihad.

I hope the Rankin County School Board will reconsider its decision and allow the marching band to resume performing “How Great Thou Art.”  

And should Judge Reeves make good on his threat to financially punish the school district, I will personally pay the $10,000 fine. "

It may be just a small thing.  David of the Bible and his slingshot were small things compared to the size of the giant.  So was the pebble that felled the giant.

Every day there are those who would seek to ruin America.  They delight in forbidding us through laws or executive orders or judges to freely express our opinions and our faith.  Yet they expect us to honor their beliefs without question.

The time is now to say "No More."  I am just a chubby, gray haired granny.  I can not change our Godless government.  But what I can do is to refuse to comply.  I can refuse to give up my faith to the whims of the Godless.  I can keep on speaking my truth.  I can keep on writing my truth.

And if need be, I can stand alone in a stadium and sing "How Great Thou Art."

14 comments:

  1. On the one hand, this kind of judicial fascism is sickening. It's pathetic that one ill intentioned individual can force his will on thousands. Democracy is about equal treatment for everyone, but not about a minority ruling over the vast majority of persons. Judicial activists have found a ready tool in the hundreds of left wing federal judges appointed by democratic presidents at levels high and low.

    I'm glad to see that people are starting to fight back.

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  2. thank you. would never have heard of it if you had not written about it.

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  3. Harry...I have been noticing lately that every now and then an article like this one appears, where even on a small scale, somebody fights back. I think people are getting tired of the nonsense, especially when it has to do with something like this band performance. I really hope this kind of resistance grows.

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  4. Deb...This morning a friend posted on Facebook, so I followed the link to the story. Made me want to stand up and cheer those who had the guts to fight back, even on a small scale. It is about time.

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  5. I hadn't heard about the second part. Good deal!

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  6. Gorges...I love the way that town stood together and made it known just what they thought of the complaint against their high school band and what they thought of the judge who made such a ridiculous ruling. More power to them!

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  7. Frank and Fern...This one kind of gave me a chill up my spine - the good kind. Too often we see those who would rather line up to get on the truck instead of standing and fighting for what is right.

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  8. I got cold chills reading this.

    Great job.

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  9. Thanks, Gail...I can't take credit for the original article, but when I first read it I felt the same as you did. I can visualize those people, standing one by one and singing, in defiance of the judge who made such a ridiculous ruling. We surely could use more people who aren't afraid to stand up and be counted.

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  10. So goes the saying for "GOD and Country". Basically anyone with any kind of Christian faith is no marked for shaming, and that the nice words to say.

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  11. Rob...I love the way those people just went ahead and defied the judge. And sang the song that got the band benched. At a school game. Where anything religious had been forbidden. Take that, your honor!!

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  12. I have said for many years that the problems started when prayers were banished from morning assemblies in schools.

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  13. Blog of Bee...I wholeheartedly agree. Any time we exclude God from any part of our lives, we lose, and look where we are now. Thanks for stopping by.

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