Coach Joe Kennedy fears for religious liberty, says God uses ‘least likely’ people

September 4, 2024

An assistant high school football coach who won a Supreme Court case after being fired for praying on the field, is speaking out on his experience.

The Christian Post reports that coach Joseph Kennedy, who coached the varsity football team at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Washington says, God uses the unlikeliest of people to accomplish His purposes.

In an interview with the Christian Post, Kennedy said, “I don’t know why God does what He does; none of us do. And I was the least likely person that I thought God would ever want to do anything with.”

In 2015, Kennedy was suspended and then terminated from his job for kneeling in prayer on the 50-yard line of the football field after games. After seven losses in lower courts, Kennedy’s case reached the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled in 2022 that his prayers were protected speech under the First Amendment.

That 6-3 ruling upheld the right of public school employees to engage in brief, personal private prayer and overturned the 1971 Supreme Court decision of Lemon v. Kurtzman which had established a 3-prong “Lemon test.“

According to the Christian Post, the Lemon test had allowed the government to become 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.

Kennedy said the original complaint against him came from a member of a local satanic group.

The former coach told the Christian Post that his legal struggles solidified his faith and his determination to be a light for the young men he coached.

Kennedy said, “This is something that I did not want, I did not ask for. 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.”

Photo: top, Credit: The Christian Post