JACKSON FANS JOIN IN PRAYER

JACKSON, Mo. -- It wasn't very loud, but prayers rarely are.

Many football fans recited the Lord's Prayer prior to the Jackson High School football game Friday night in what one organizer of the event described as an act of "civil disobedience" that attorneys have assured was completely legal.

The Jackson School District this year discontinued its practice of having ministers say a prayer over the loud speaker before home football games. The decision was a reaction to a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning student-led amplified prayer before football games.

Fliers handed out as people entered the stadium Friday night gave instructions on how to participate in the prayer. After the Jackson High School band finished playing the National Anthem and formed a corridor for the players to enter the field, a girl near the 25-second clock at the east end of the stadium held up a sign reading "Pray." When flipped over, the sign read "Our," the first word of the prayer and the signal to begin.

Many people prayed, and applause followed the completion of the prayer. One member of the crowd said not everyone in the stadium seemed to understand what was happening.

"It wasn't as loud as what he hoped," said Butch Gast, one of the organizers of the protest. But he said he was happy with the outcome.

He didn't know if the prayer will be repeated at future home games, suggesting that gathering people together in one place to pray before the games might be preferable.

No one he handed fliers to seemed opposed to the idea of praying before the game, Gast said. "I didn't have one negative reaction."

Gast said attorneys were consulted beforehand to make sure the prayer could be said as long as it wasn't sanctioned by the schools.

Similar events in which the Lord's Prayer was read have occurred as protests at high school football games in the South this month.

No one the Southeast Missourian interviewed criticized the prayer, though a number of people missed it because of the long line still waiting to get into the stadium just prior to the kickoff.

"It's appropriate," said Doug Holcomb, whose son plays on the freshman team. "There needs to be more of it."

"I think we should be allowed to pray," said Tina Risinger, whose son, Steven, plays on the eighth-grade team in Jackson. She told of one of her children bringing home a book from school with the word God crossed out and the word king inserted. "Everybody should be allowed to pray," she said.

Neither the school district nor the Jackson Ministerial Alliance was involved in organizing the demonstration. The Rev. Sam Roethemeyer, president of the Ministerial Alliance, was on the sidelines Friday. He reiterated the organization's backing of the school district's decision but also endorsed people exercising their right to pray.

"I respect that that's the law, and that that's what we have the freedom to do," he said.

Dr. Ronald Anderson, superintendent of the school district, said the decision to discontinue the prayers was based on the advice of attorneys and on the district's insurance vendor's position that it would not be covered if sued over the prayers.

A tailgate party was held prior to the game at New McKendree United Methodist Church. "We felt that in so far as the Supreme Court said prayers can't be said before a public school function, we would have a prayer at the tailgate party," the Rev. John Rice said.

The tailgate party was created as an alternative to the tradition of praying at the stadium.

"What we didn't want to do is unfairly create an issue for the school board," Rice said. "They're sworn to follow the law."