Senator James Lankford recently delivered a speech on the Senate floor to introduce a bill aimed at protecting religious student organizations and to reflect on the 35th anniversary of a national student prayer movement. In his address, he read the entire text of a bill he filed, which he described as “literally just half a page” and intended to address a constitutional right of association and affiliation. The bill states that no federal funds may be provided to any public institution of higher education that denies a religious student organization “any right, benefit, or privilege” afforded to other student organizations due to its “religious beliefs, practices, speech, leadership standards, or standards of conduct”.
Protecting Religious Freedom on Campus
Lankford argued that treating religious organizations the same as any other group on campus should be “pretty simple for all of us”. He explained that this bill was necessary due to past issues under the Biden administration, where some colleges denied religious organizations access to campus facilities or even tried to dictate their leadership. He cited examples of a Jewish organization being told it had to pick non-Jewish leaders or a Christian organization being told it had to select non-Christian leaders. Lankford expressed disbelief at this, saying, “What in the world? What happened to the basic right of association and affiliation, that is a constitutionally protected right?”.
The “See You at the Pole” Movement
The Senator connected the bill to a larger event, See You at the Pole, which marks its 35th anniversary this year. He recounted how the movement began in September 1990, when a small group of students gathered around a flagpole to pray for their school, a movement that “ended up being about 46,000 total students in four different states, including my state of Oklahoma”. The next year, after students were arrested at one of the gatherings, a million students showed up to pray in nearly every state in the nation. The movement has since grown globally.
Lankford, who was a youth minister at the time and helped “fan the flame” of the student-led movement, noted that the students gathering today are the children of the first generation that started the movement 35 years ago. He believes the prayer movement is especially important in a time of national anger and frustration. He concluded by encouraging students to gather at their flagpoles on the coming Wednesday morning, September 24th, to pray for the nation. He said, “You can be assured I’m going to be parked across the street from a campus, watching a group of students pray for a nation that needs help, and I will join them”.
