The Foundation for Moral Law, the Montgomery-based legal foundation founded by current U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, has suggested Trussville and other schools ignore complaints about school prayer.

Moore's wife, Kayla Moore, president of the foundation, sent out a statement in which she urged Alabama school districts to resist the demands of the Freedom from Religion Foundation and others who are trying to "drive prayer out of school athletic events."

In an Oct. 27 letter to the Trussville City Schools, the Foundation for Moral Law says the FFRF has misinterpreted the First Amendment and the case law on this issue, and observes that while the FFRF sends out hundreds of letters demanding that various religious practices cease, "they often fail to follow through with legal action if local officials refuse to cave in to their demands."

"Every year the FFRF sends out numerous letters to school boards, city councils, county commissions, and other government agencies demanding that they cease allowing or sponsoring various religious activities," Mrs. Moore wrote in the letter to Trussville City Schools. "They often cite court cases to support their position, giving those cases a simplistic interpretation and stating their conclusions overbroadly.

"Their strategy is to intimidate government officials with the threat of lawsuits, in the hope that those officials will cave in to their demands. And sometimes that works. But in our experience, when officials refuse to cave in to their demands, FFRF rarely follows through with legal action."

Foundation for Moral Law President Kayla Moore said: "Officials should realize that these threatening letters say only what the FFRF wishes the Constitution said, not what it actually says. The Foundation for Moral Law is willing to talk with school officials and school attorneys directly, analyze their policies, and determine what if anything needs to be done to ensure compliance with the Constitution. Please feel free to contact us if we can be of help. That's what we were formed to do."