I SHUDDER

Hugo McCord

Mr. Jody McLoud, principal of the Roanoke County High School in Kingston, Tenn., read a statement on September 1 before the beginning of the local high school football game, explaining why he would not offer a prayer:

It has always been the custom at Roanoke County High School football games to say a prayer and play the national anthem to honor God and country. Due to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a prayer is a violation of federal case law. ... For this reason, I shall, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s,” and refrain from praying at this time. However, if you [spoken to the people in the stands] feel inspired to honor, praise, and thank God, and ask Him in the name of Jesus to bless this event, please feel free to do so. As far as I know, that’s not against the law--yet.

Mr. McLoud also told the people in the stands:

As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility [the loudspeaker] to approve of sexual perversion and call it an alternate lifestyle, and if someone is offended, that’s okay.

I can use it to condone sexual promiscuity by dispensing condoms and calling it safe sex. If someone is offended, that’s okay.

I can even use this public facility to present the merits of killing an unborn baby as a viable means of birth control. If someone is offended, no problem.

I can designate a school day as earth day and involve students in activities to religiously worship and praise the goddess, Mother Earth, and call it ecology.

I can use literature, videos and presentations in the classroom that depict people with strong traditional Christian convictions as simple-minded and ignorant and call it enlightenment.

However, if anyone uses this facility to honor God and ask Him to bless this event with safety and good sportsmanship, federal case law is violated.

This appears to be at best, inconsistent and at worst, diabolical. Apparently, we are to be tolerant of everything and everyone except God and His commandments (Reprinted with permission, GOSPEL ADVOCATE, November, 2000).

Why “federal case law” is violated by a prayer before the beginning of a football game, but not by a prayer led by a government-paid “clergyman” before any business is conducted in the National House of Representatives, and in the Senate, and in the Supreme Court, is hard for me to understand.

Why “federal case law” is violated by a prayer before the beginning of a football game, but not by government-paid chaplains in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard, is hard for me to understand.

I shudder to think that perhaps I broke “federal case law” by performing the wedding ceremony, including a prayer, for a couple in the chapel of the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C.

I shudder to think that perhaps I broke “federal case law” in giving a copy of the Bible to the chief executive officer of the United States and to the nation’s first lady. Earl West has written of that 1937 experience:

While Lois was in Memphis waiting for Charles to make his appearance, Hugo got the idea of writing Eleanor and see if she would permit him to give her and President Roosevelt a Bible. Three days later Hugo got the message that she would be delighted to receive one from him and would he come on Friday at 5:30. Hugo had only one day to visit Garfinkel’s Department Store and purchase a Bible and inscribe inside it, “To Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”

The next day was exciting when the butler led him to the Red Room while he went upstairs for a moment, then returned with instructions that Hugo was to follow him. When the servant led him up the stairs, Eleanor waited at the top with a smile on her face and her hand extended. After leading him into the Living Room, she took the Bible, opened it, read the inscription and thanked him. The butler then brought sandwiches and tea service and placed them on the coffee table in front of the divan where they would be sitting. ...

At six p.m. Hugo excused himself to leave, but she asked him not to go yet. In a few moments a husband and wife from Connecticut, Eleanor’s guests, came into the room and she introduced Hugo as “the pastor of the Church of Christ.” The man replied that he had not heard of that church in Connecticut. A half hour later, Hugo excused himself again, but she said, “Not yet.” Finally, at seven p.m., she stood up and bade him Goodbye. Lois later informed her surprised husband that according to Emily Post, which she had recently studied, Hugo should not have excused himself--it was not proper Washington etiquette.

I shudder to think that the copy of the Bible I gave to the Roosevelts may have been the occasion of another violation of “federal case law.” Earl West continues:

Whether the President or his wife ever spent any time with Hugo’s Bible is difficult to determine. David Fromkin in his book, IN TIME OF THE AMERICANS, recounts that after FDR’s death in Warm Springs, Georgia, April 12, 1945, there was a hasty search in the White House bookcases during the next four hours for a Bible on which Vice President Harry Truman could take the oath of office. Eleanor, it would appear, had not spent much time with Hugo’s Bible since she was unable to find it when it was needed for this special occasion.

11-24-2000