Roy Costner IV, a high school valedictorian in Liberty County, S.C., ripped up his school-approved speech and replaced it with the Lord's Prayer at his graduation ceremony this past weekend, Christian News reported Tuesday.
According to Pickens County School District spokesman John Eby, the district has come under fire from the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. As a result, the district decided to end all invocations and prayer at all functions, replacing them with a moment of silence.
But Costner was not about to keep God out of his graduation.
Costner, “drew loud applause and cheers when he surprised attendees” at the ceremony, Christian News reported.
He began by reading a short excerpt from his prepared remarks and thanked his parents for his Christian upbringing.
“Those that we look up to, they have helped carve and mold us into the young adults that we are today,” he said. “I’m so glad that both of my parents led me to the Lord at a young age.”
“And I think most of you will understand when I say…” he started.
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name,” he said. “Thy Kingdom come…”
Applause began to break out as attendees realized what he had done. Soon, applause turned to loud cheers.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” he continued. “For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”
“The crowd again broke into cheers and applause as Costner concluded, and one faculty member sat smiling behind him,” Christian News reported.
Video of the incident has gone viral and has been viewed over 76,000 times.
Eby said the district will take no action against Costner.
“The bottom line is, we’re not going to punish students for expressing their religious faiths,” he said. “He’s a graduate now. There’s nothing we can do about it, even if we wanted to.”
“I think it took a lot of courage to do that,” one attendee said. “People were [supportive] that he stood up for what he believed in.”
“Costner plans to head to Clemson University in the fall to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science,” according to a school publication.
The YouTube video does not include footage of Costner tearing his prepared speech, but is included in video footage at WYFF.
Update: On Thursday, the FRFF expressed outrage over Costner’s delivery of the Lord’s Prayer. More here: http://libertyunyielding.com/2013/06/06/anti-christian-group-outraged-that-valedictorian-dared-to-recite-lords-prayer-at-graduation/
“And I think most of you will understand when I say…”
Hmmm. I imagine folks of non-Christian faiths might have felt uncomfortable at being rhetorically excluded from that “most of you.” I think of myself as open-minded about expressions of faith in general, but events like this are kept religiously neutral for a reason. Of course, if a person of a minority faith such as Judaism had quoted the Talmud or some such thing, there might not be as much of an uproar. Because this was a prayer strongly associated with Christianity (rather than a Judeo-Christian principle like “Honor thy father and mother,” which might still upset people with, say, abusive parents), and because Christianity is the majority religion in America by a wide margin, I identify with the argument against Costner’s actions more than I identify with the argument in favor.
America became the great nation that it was because we were a nation that honored God. Frankly it’s time Christians like this brave young man, stood up and publicly honored The Lord. For those of you that don’t agree, one day you will find out that the Lord is worthy of our honor and respect when you stand before him to give account for your life. He’s the reason and purpose for life. He is a loving and forgiving God and wishes to draw all men and women to his heart.
The fact that he said “most of you” and not “all of you” or even just “you” further supports Neal’s point.
I think it took a lot of guts for this student to do what he did, but I don’t agree with it.
This sounds like another one of those “we persecuted Christians” narratives that gets SOOOOO much love from the faithful. At the expense of everyone else.of course, but then, that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Privilege to me and mine, and the rest of you can suck it!