The high-profile case about a high school football coach who lost his job due to a tradition of post-game prayers will soon be made into a memoir by Coach Joe Kennedy. The case was taken to the nation’s highest court, and in the end, the Supreme Court sided with Coach Kennedy and his right to prayer.
His book “Average Joe” was released on October 24, and he shares his story of persevering in trusting in his faith in God even when it seemed that faith got him in a mess of trouble. The book’s Amazon description reads, “When Coach Joe Kennedy started offering a prayer on the field after each high school football game, the school district tried to shut him down, launching a seven-year legal battle that went to the Supreme Court—twice. In June 2022, he won.”
That win was huge for the growing religious movement that has been seen sweeping across college campuses with a fervor unseen in recent years. With the right to pray reaffirmed, students around the nation have grown unafraid of retribution for proudly stating their Christian beliefs.
Kennedy spoke to the Christian Post in a candid interview prior to the release of his book, in which he gave a clear explanation of why he took his stand. He also gave the following message to critics who do not understand why this was so important to him.
Speaking of his critics, Kennedy said, “I think they would be mostly surprised by the reason why I stood up for what I did and why a simple prayer was so important to me. I think they’ll understand this was really a constitutional, free speech and free exercise side. This was something that was near and dear to my heart, there wasn’t really a Christian side of it.”
In an interview with KING 5 Seattle earlier this year, Kennedy also offered a message that Faith in God was the sole thing that could turn our country out of its downward spiral of destitution.
Kennedy said, “politics is not going to be the one to save us. God’s got to save us. We’ve got to save ourselves. We’ve got to get off our butts, and it’s just going to show everybody that’s prayed, we’ve won. We won this together.”
Again, speaking to the Christian post, Kennedy also noted that a movie is in the works detailing his legal battles and his insistence on open prayer after games.
He said, “This has been in talks for years and years. The guys that did “God’s Not Dead” had a vision to tell this story. I always thought that this would be a great one for “Facing the Giants 2” since that movie with the Kendrick brothers really spoke to my heart and changed my life.They started filming two weeks ago.”
This is an exciting new chapter in the growing catalog of Christian stories that are coming to film with big budgets and competent film-makers. The story of Kennedy’s life is one to keep an eye on as its release day is upon us in the future.
The featured image is a screenshot from an embedded YouTube video.
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