Family Policy Alliance of Georgia Urges Senate Committee to Reject “War on Faith”

February 14
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2018

 

Atlanta- Family Policy Alliance of Georgia, the public policy partner of Focus on the Family in the Peach State, is urging the Senate’s Education and Youth Committee to support SB 361, known as the “Coach Small Bill.”

The Committee will hear the Coach Small bill at 3:00pm on Wednesday, February 14th in Capitol Building Room 450. The legislation is sponsored by Senator Michael Williams.

The law is clear—religious freedom doesn’t end in the school parking lot,” said Cole Muzio, President and Executive Director of Family Policy Alliance of Georgia. “Yet, radical atheist groups continue to insist that teachers should be forced to choose between their faith and their careers, and that students should have to hide their faith at school. Senate Bill 361 is a pivotal step to establishing a constitutional, inclusive, and empowering policy that best serves our students and their families.”

Muzio pointed to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Milwaukee-based group with a history of threatening lawsuits on local communities that show any respect for faith. Infamous examples include suing to bar the Star of David from the Holocaust Museum, attacking a New Mexico community for playing gospel music during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, and suing Presidents Bush and Obama for honoring a National Day of Prayer. Here in Georgia, FFRF has most prominently attacked football coaches, including one in Villa Rica who participated in a voluntary baptism and, most recently, Coach Small in Coweta County who participated in a voluntary pre-game prayer.

Our schools should be a place where First Amendment freedoms are taught and honored,” Muzio continued. “I call upon the Senate Committee to vote quickly in favor of SB361 so that we can protect the coaches’ right to pray with their teams, the teachers’ right to acknowledge their faith, and the students’ right to express faith verbally or in their assignments. This bill does not introduce any new ideas. Instead, it simply calls our state to return to the principle it was founded upon–freedom.”

Family Policy Alliance of Georgia is the state-based ally of Family Policy Alliance, which was founded by and remains the public policy partner of Focus on the Family. Family Policy of Georgia works to advance biblical citizenship and promote good public policy that protects religious freedom, families, and life.

Cole Muzio is available for comment by contacting Autumn Leva, media@familypolicyalliance.com.

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