This is heartwarming. It makes me feel good that America is still producing such young men.
The Washington Times reports:
A South Carolina valedictorian garnered wild applause after he ripped up his pre-approved speech and delivered the Lord’s prayer at his high school graduation on Saturday.
The act was apparently in protest of the Pickens County School District’s decision to no longer include prayer at graduation ceremonies, Christian News reported. Officials said the decision was made after the district was barraged with complaints by atheist groups.
But that didn’t stop Roy Costner IV of Liberty High School. He ripped up his graduation speech for all to see, before he started talking about his Christian upbringing, Christian News reported.
“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 paused. “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name…”
The auditorium began to erupt with applause and cheers.
Here’s the video and watch until the end for the big cheer. If you look carefully, one of the teachers can’t help but smile either.
The school said the young man is a graduate and there’s nothing they can do about his decision.
HT Pewsitter
June 6, 2013 at 4:03 am
I only wish this was the case at my school. The diploma will be given to me right after the ceremony, but if I misbehave, they can hold it at the principal's discretion. I guess we only had enough hours in school as of today, or something to that effect.
June 6, 2013 at 7:43 am
God bless that young man! People are getting sick and tired of the "progressive" agenda being forced down their throats. We're coming to a point in this country where people are going to react, and react more passionately. The "progressives" won't know what hit them.
June 6, 2013 at 10:25 am
Freedom of Speech. Only Truth is allowed under Freedom of Speech. And God is perfect Truth.
June 6, 2013 at 4:04 pm
Several years ago in my parish, a visitor stood up during the Prayers of the Faithful and loudly proclaimed that all of us were doomed to Hell because – he said – we did not believe in Jesus Christ. I and several others hustled him out while he accused us of bullying.
There is of course an implied social contract – behave yourself in a social situation, and the unhappy man's presumption that Catholics are not Christian is but the result of the false teachings in his closed loop of misinformation. But he was wrong in not keeping his ideology in the various marketplaces of ideas and not disrupting worship.
No allusion is ever precise, but consider this: the graduation discussed took place in a small town in South Carolina. The students, faculty, administration, the nice fellow who sweeps up, the elected school board, and the parents are surely mostly Methodists and Baptists, with a nice variety of other Christian congregations represented there. His football games began with prayers. His school days began with a moment of silence. There were copies of the Bible in his school library and often in individual classrooms. So who or what was the young man protesting? His Methodist math teacher?
Further, the valedictory speech, as is common these days, was cleared with his principal. If the young man felt this was wrong, why did he not take a stand then? Why did he agree, and then break his word in the matter?
Too much following of a script. The young man's Baptist kindergarten teacher, the school trustee who also teaches Presbyterian Sunday School — they are not the enemy.
Matthew 6:5-7