Georgia Preacher Won't Put Prayer Before Games

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 21, 2001 | by Robert Stacy McCain

It will take more than a Supreme Court decision to stop prayer at high-school football games so long as the Rev. Curtis Turner has breath in his body. Last fall, the Georgia pastor led tens of thousands of football fans to join in mass recitations of the Lord's Prayer before high-school games, in defiance of a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that found student-organized prayer at school sporting events to be a violation of the First Amendment.

"Everywhere I've been, it's been an overwhelming response," says Turner, pastor of the New Testament Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of Ellenwood, Ga. "We're still a praying nation."

Appalled by the Supreme Court decision, Turner joined the Asheville, N.C.-based "We Still Pray" movement, which advocates returning prayer to America's public life. His first football-game appearance, at Jonesboro High School not far from his church, resulted in some 80 percent of the crowd of 3,000 joining in prayer, by his estimate. TV stations and national Christian-radio talk shows took notice, and he since has taken his prayer campaign as far as Dallas.

His method is simple. As fans enter the stadium, Turner and dozens of volunteers distribute cards that read: "Join thousands of other parents and students across the nation who are expressing their approval and their right to pray in the schools and at ball games. If you are comfortable in doing so, please remain standing after the national anthem and recite the Lord's Prayer, found on the back of this card."

While promoting prayers at games, Turner also has gathered tens of thousands of signatures on a petition in support of House Joint Resolution 66, which proposes a constitutional amendment to guarantee that "the people's right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage and traditions on public property, including schools, shall not be infringed." The campaign has drawn opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union.