Brawley Union School officials edited out all references to Jesus and prayer in three successive versions of Hamby’s graduation address. One administrator went so far as to redact every “dirty bits” religious reference with a black marker.
He and his parents were told that if Brooks interjected “religious content”, the sound would be cut off and a disclaimer to the entire audience made explaining the district’s position.
While Brooks didn’t want to compromise his faith and values by watering down the message, he also wasn’t interested in outright rebellion. So he wrote a fourth version and emailed it to the superintendent, principal and counselor. When it was time for him to speak, he had received no reply from them, so he used it. In part it said:
“In simply coming before you today, I presented three drafts of my speech – all of them denied on account of my desire to share my personal thoughts and inspiration to you in my Christian faith. In life, you will be told no. In life, you will be asked to do things that you have no desire to do. In life, you will be asked to do things that violate your conscience and your desire to do what is right.”
“So I will leave you with this, with a quote from the biggest best-selling book of all time in history: ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot’. Be the salt of the earth, be strong and stand for your convictions and do what is right, ethical, moral, and Godly, no matter the cost to you.”
“May the God of the Bible bless each and every one of you every day in the rest of your lives.”
Nobody shut off the microphone.
Hiram Sasser, an attorney for the Liberty Institute, told Fox News’ Todd Starnes that Brooks was on firm legal ground to deliver the original version of his speech.
“It is outrageous that a government school official would demand that a salutatorian submit his speech for government review for the purpose of censoring religious speech. Even in the Ninth Circuit, no government official may censor simple references to God that served as personal acknowledgment by Brooks of something greater than himself.”
Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/06/16/god-redacted-from-high-school-graduation-speech/
polination.blog 
Speaking of driven by faith…
“At the risk of appearing predictable, the Bible was and remains the biggest influence on my thinking, I was raised reading it, memorizing passages from it and being guided by it. I still find it a source of wisdom, comfort and encouragement.”
Hillary Clinton
[Pardon my choking noises]
Some of us read 1984 or Animal Farm as warnings, others apparently see it as inspirations, so, some read the Bible to know God’s Will, but others do so to know… somebody else’s will?
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Those who can’t handle the truth,
try to silence those who speak it.
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