The president of Snead State Community College in Alabama is facing criticism from atheists after he offered a prayer before a meal.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, an organization of atheists and agnostics, expressed their discontent after discovering that President Joe Whitmore regularly said grace before meals.
The group, based in Wisconsin, claimed that someone in Boaz, Alabama filed a complaint over the prayer.
They accused the president of “imposing his personal religious beliefs on Snead State employees and treating Snead State as a Christian college, rather than the secular public college it is.”
Furthermore, they expressed discomfort over Whitmore sharing a “guiding Bible verse” with staff, which they believed made non-believers feel “uncomfortable and excluded.”
“Our complainant has been required to partake in Christian prayer before meals and at staff events,” FFRF said in a statement.
FFRF attorney Chris Line attacked the prayers as “unconstitutional.”
“As a state-run institution, Snead State Community College is bound by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which ‘mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion,’” Line wrote in a letter. “Federal courts have routinely enforced the strictures of the Establishment Clause in the context of public colleges and universities. Instituting a ‘guiding bible verse,’ leading prayers or otherwise pushing your personal religious beliefs onto subordinates in your official capacity as president is coercive and clearly demonstrates a preference for religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths.”
Gov. Kay Ivey defended Whitmore in a fierce statement — as did U.S. Katie Britt (R-AL).
“It is disappointing, although not surprising, to see an out-of-state, leftwing group launch yet another attack on Alabamians’ constitutionally protected religious liberty. Make no mistake — this is part of a continued, concerted effort to get more Americans to turn away from God,” Britt wrote in a statement to 1819News.com. “That’s the opposite of what we need as a nation — we need a revival. I will continue to stand up for the rights of each and every Alabamian in the United States Senate, while fighting every day for Alabama’s values and interests.”
FFRF has also criticized Auburn University for a student baptism service.
But what does the law say?
According to Department of Education guidelines, there is “nothing in the First Amendment that converts public schools into religion-free zones, or requires students, teachers, or other school officials to leave their private religious expression behind at the schoolhouse door.”
So, when the faculty at Snead State Community College shares a meal together, President Whitworth will be within his rights to express gratitude to Jesus for the food, according to these guidelines.
