High school football coach Joe Kennedy is still surprised that God chose him to challenge – and win – a ban on prayer before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I don’t know why God does what he does; none of us do,” Kennedy, who coached the varsity football team at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Wash., told “The Christian Post.” “And I was the least likely person that I thought God would ever want to do anything with.”
In 2015, Kennedy faced suspension and eventual termination for kneeling in prayer at the 50-yard line on the football field after games. After losing seven times in lower courts, his case finally reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2022 that his prayers were protected by the First Amendment.
The court ruled 6-3 in favor of Kennedy and upheld the constitutional right of public school employees to engage in brief, personal private prayer, which effectively overturned the 1971 Supreme Court decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman, which had established the three-prong “Lemon test.” This test had allowed the government to be involved in religion only if it served a secular purpose, did not inhibit or advance religion and did not result in excessive entanglement of church and state.
“This is something that I did not want, I did not ask for,” Kennedy said. “And this whole entire time, I’ve been dragging my feet on it and saying, ‘God, I don’t want to go through this.’ But he does the most incredible things with idiots like me.”
Kennedy said his legal battle solidified his faith and his commitment to being a light for the young men he coached.
“During that fight, I had to sit there and rely just on my relationship with God, because I had nothing else,” he said. “I didn’t even have my wife on my side. My wife worked for the school district. She was the HR director.”
Kennedy encouraged those who might face repercussions at their workplace for their beliefs to “be the light.”
“We are not called to win the fight,” he said. “I wish that was part of the paragraph, but it’s not. We are called to fight the good fight. We’re called to finish that race and to remain faithful. And when I get to heaven, I want God to look at me and go, ‘Hey, you did alright.'”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice