Texas Cheerleaders Fights For their Religious Freedom

Texas News- Lawyers and guardians of the Texas cheerleaders who created religious banners during their local football games will be going back to court to defend their right for religious free speech.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Atty.Gen. Greg Abbott have supported the cheerleaders by overturning the ban implemented by the schools district to prohibit the display of religious verses on local school games.

Gov. Rick Perry said "Anyone who is expressing their faith should be celebrated, from my perspective, in this day and age of instant gratification, this me-first culture that we see all too often," Perry said yesterday. "We're a nation built on the concept of free expression of ideas. We're also a culture built on the concept that the original law is God's law, outlined in the Ten Commandments."

Abbott said that since the cheerleaders create the banners without school funding, they qualify as free speech and should not be banned.

One of the cheerleaders was overwhelm by the supports of their Texas Politicians.

“We're very thankful for them standing up for our rights,” Macy Matthews, 15, told the Los Angeles Times.

Others think that Perry and Abbot have overstepped their boundaries.

“The attorney general has crossed the line,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation based in Madison, Wis., told The Times.

This was the group’s statement last Wednesday.

“We are defending freedom of conscience. The Constitution differentiates government [public school] speech from individual speech. Those cheerleaders are free to worship as they like, go to the church of their choice, but not to exploit a public school event, and their school-sponsored podium, to push their personal religious views on an entire stadium. That's just plain bad manners,” It all started when a “nonbeliever” complained about the religious banners but did not come forward because of security threats.

There is 1 in 5 Americans who is not a member of any religion According to Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Matthews said that if she could speak to the person who complained, “I would actually thank them. I'm very grateful they did this — there are millions of people it's reached, and they wouldn't have heard about it without this.”

After the complaint the banning of banners started on Sept 18 and the parents filed a legal action on the district.

Supporters have created a Facebook page called Support Kountze Kids Faith and is nearing 49000 likes. Parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi have been copying their banners and showing them on local games.