Say Grace, Go To Jail?

     In a Florida public high school, Principal Lay, Head Administrator at Pace High School, asked his athletic director, Robert Freeman, to say grace, or to pray, before a school luncheon. Principal Lay, who has always been known for undoubtedly sharing his Christian beliefs, has never wanted to hide away his faith. In asking his to have his athletic director say grace, Principal Lay violated the First Amendment right of freedom of religion, trying to pray a Christian prayer without the consent of the students, parents, and faculty members who were present then. Through this, he was trying to establish a single religion in a public school facility, even if it was done unintentionally. Because of this, Principal Lay was sentenced to serve time in jail due to the fact that he violated a court order to not promote his personal faith as a government official at a government function. However, the question is, should Principal Lay have to spend time in jail, simply because he was expressing his belief through a prayer?

     I share very similar Christian beliefs as Principal Lay and do not think that anyone should be sent to jail over a matter of saying a prayer, whether they are on school property or not. But I do believe that Principal Lay crossed the line when he was specifically ordered, by a Federal Court Judge, to not promote any of his Christian beliefs and impose his religious views onto others at a government function, and then went ahead and asked a faculty member to say a prayer. He violated his court order and for this, I believe that he should be sentenced. So outside of violating court orders, I do not believe that anybody should be sent to jail for saying a prayer, however, if a person knows that saying a prayer aloud in a situation such as this would cause conflict between others, then maybe it would be best to say a prayer in your head. I'm not saying this in order to have someone feel as if they must be ashamed of their faith in school or at work and must say a prayer silently but to avoid such hostility and conflict maybe it would be best to not say a prayer aloud. As the article I read suggests, "God is not hard of hearing."