A public school that participated in an annual “Jeep Blessing” near Cadillac, Michigan says it will no longer take part in the religious event.

I posted back in June about how this ceremony, just outside Boon Baptist Church, involved a pastor blessing all the cars. For some reason, though, the band at Mesick High School performed at the event. Their director, Craig Jones, not only arranged for the performances but also asked parents to chaperone the event, making this a school-sanctioned performance.

While the most recent post about this on Facebook has been removed, there are still old pictures online:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the District’s superintendent calling for the partnership to end. Just saying it was “voluntary” for students didn’t suddenly make it legal.

Now the District’s attorney has responded to say this will never happen again:

On August 12, 2019, the Mesick Board of Education discussed this issue in closed session. From this point forward, the District will cease all involvement with the annual “Blessing of the Jeeps” event. The District’s band will no longer perform the national anthem at the event or handle parking for the event.

Good. It shouldn’t have taken FFRF’s involvement for the school to do the right thing, but the pressure was no doubt useful. The Jeeps will just have to bless themselves now.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)

