Robert Jeffress Defends School's Muslim Prayer Room: Christians 'Shouldn't Pervert First Amendment Like Liberals'
Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas is defending a Texas high school's on-site prayer room that's primarily used by Muslim students, saying Christians should not "pervert the First Amendment like liberals."
Fox News reports that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to Liberty High School in Frisco over concerns that the prayer room, which was established in 2009, could be violating the separation of church and state.
Frisco ISD spokesman Chris Moore claims that the room is open for everybody, however, saying in an interview with CBS DFW that "sometimes there'll be other students in there who might be praying."
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The megachurch pastor argued that people of faith in America have faced numerous challenges to display their religion publicly, and urged Christians not to "pervert the First Amendment like liberals do to use it for their own agenda."
"It has nothing to say about nativity scenes, Ten Commandment displays or prayer rooms. ... Christians have been pushed out by an absolute perversion of the First Amendment, but we as Christians don't have to push down somebody else's religion," he said.
Jeffress added that the case is an important example for President Donald Trump's need to appoint judges "who interpret law according to what the Constitution actually says, and not according to what liberals wish it said."
The Christian Post reached out to the Freedom From Religion Foundation to ask whether it plans to send a letter of complaint to Frisco ISD, as the organization is known to do, but FFRF did not respond by press time.
Late last week Frisco ISD sent a letter of response to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, arguing that there had not been any issues with the prayer room for the past seven years, until the state sent its letter saying the situation "left several questions unresolved."
"It is important to note Frisco ISD is greatly concerned that this type of inflammatory rhetoric in the current climate may place the district, its students, staff, parents and community in danger of unnecessary disruption," Frisco ISD responded.
"In your letter, you state it is unclear whether students of other faiths may use the prayer room at the same time or at other times during the week. Further, you state it appears students are being treated differently based on their religious beliefs," it added, asking the attorney general to present evidence of any religious group and/or individual requesting access to the room.
Muslim-American Mustafa Tameez, a Democratic political consultant, asserted in an interview on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" that the attorney general is trying to create a controversy where one doesn't exist.
"In airports we have a chapel where people can go pray," Tameez said. "So it's not necessarily just for Muslim students. It's for anybody, anybody of faith that wants to use a room to communicate with their creator."
