Your recently published article (Onerous prayer ban protested but may provide protection, November 16) about Friday night’s prayer left me fuming. People tend to take their religious freedoms for granted, and having a simple prayer taken away might do them some good — they’ll learn what it is to be made subservient based on their religious beliefs.

I’m not a Christian, and for all the years that I’ve attended South Panola, my lack of religion has been a popular topic of conversation. I have been teased, taunted, and cast out of social groups. People point at me and whisper when I walk down the halls. But it has never bothered me, because my parents did an excellent job of teaching me the concept of tolerance, and part of tolerance is accepting the ignorance of others. However, staff writer Billy Davis struck a nerve with his editorial in Tuesday’s paper.

People have frustrated themselves to near insanity while trying to convert me, but I have always stood fast in my own beliefs.

Yet at every football game, I bow my head and close my eyes for the prayer. For every field trip and every ROTC ceremony, I do the same. I’ve never taken advantage of the law and complained to the school board — as Billy Davis might say, I’ve never “tattled.” In fact, I commend my fellow students for their insistence on prayer at Friday night’s football game, if only because I encourage everyone to stand up for what they believe in, whether or not it’s a widely shared belief.

However, Mr. Davis is not praising these students for their strength of conviction or honor of tradition; he is applauding them for “kicking sand in the ALCU’s face.”

And I seriously doubt that the American Civil Liberties Union, as Davis suggested, has a group of lawyers waiting for a chance to tear the community of South Panola apart with their blasphemous anti-prayer laws.

I have all too often heard it said that it’s the fault of atheists, agnostics, and other so-called “enemies of religion” that prayer has been removed from schools. It is not the fault of any one person or religious group; it is that of the government–who have thankfully shown dedication to promoting tolerance and equal  opportunities, something for which the writers at The Panolian should show some appreciation.

Sincerely,

Rhaina Johnson

South Panola High School sophomore