Coach Kennedy Explains How God Used ‘Average Joe’ to Defend Religious Freedom

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🗓️ 23 October 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

“Average” is not the adjective that comes to mind when talking about an American who took a religious freedom case all the way to the Supreme Court, but football coach Joe Kennedy says he identified with the word. “I’ve always looked at myself actually [as] below average,” Kennedy says. “I really had no idea that God was going to take my life in this way, in this path.” In his new book, “Average Joe: The Coach Joe Kennedy Story,” Kennedy explains how his simple commitment to God to take a knee in silent prayer on the 50-yard line after the high school football games he coached landed him at the center of one of the largest religious freedom cases in recent history, Kennedy v. Bremerton, Wash., School District. It was decided in his favor 6-3 by the Supreme Court on June 27, 2022. “If you could take a schmuck like me and change the path of the nation as far as religious freedom and the First Amendment goes, imagine what [God] could do with some other people,” the coach says. Kennedy joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss his new book and to explain why he chose to take a stand for religious freedom and why he left coaching shortly after his Supreme Court victory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everybody can make a difference. You could take a schmuck like me and change the path of the nation as far as religious freedom and the First Amendment goes.
0:11.0	Imagine what he could do with some other people if they just gave it a
0:14.4	chance.
0:17.0	This is the Daily Signal Podcast for Monday, October 23rd. I'm Virginia Allen and that was
0:26.2	Coach Joe Kennedy. Coach Kennedy for those who are not familiar with his story lost his job
0:32.4	at Bremerton High School in Washington State
0:35.0	after he refused to stop taking a knee in silent prayer at the end of
0:40.1	football games. Well that commitment to prayer led Coach Joe Kennedy through a long
0:47.0	nearly eight-year legal battle that ended at a victory at the Supreme Court last year.
0:53.2	Well now, Coach Joe Kennedy has a new book coming out telling his full story titled
0:57.9	Average Joe, the Coach Joe Kennedy story.
1:01.3	And Coach Kennedy is joining us here on the podcast today to talk about some of that story,
1:06.3	not only his commitment to the Lord and his coaching journey, but also a little bit of his
1:10.7	background and his childhood. Stay tuned for our conversation after this.
1:15.4	The Heritage Foundation is the most effective conservative policy organization in the
1:20.9	country. Every semester our interns are a vital part of that
1:25.0	mission. We pay competitively, we develop talent, and we give our interns
1:30.0	access to some of the sharpest minds in the country.
1:33.0	We're going on offense, so join us.
1:36.0	To learn more about the Young Leaders Program here at the Heritage Foundation,
1:40.0	please go to heritage.org
1:42.0	slash intern.
	...

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