'Cowboy Church' Banned From Holding Sunday Services at High School After Jewish Teacher Complains About Prayer Gatherings
As the result of a court settlement between a Colorado school district and a disgruntled Jewish teacher, an evangelical church is now banned from hosting its Sunday services at a high school that the congregation has paid over $20,000 to worship in for over three years.
In late May, Robert Basevitz, a Jewish teacher at Florence High School in Fremont County, filed a lawsuit against his employer school district claiming that school administrators were promoting Christianity and violating his civil rights.
The lawsuit explains that the teacher was told to "use the side door" upon complaining that large prayer gatherings around the school's flagpole 30 minutes before the start of school each morning affected his ability to enter through the front entrance of the school. The lawsuit also claims that Basevitz was transferred to an elementary school about a month after issuing his complaint.
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The daily flagpole prayer gatherings were usually attended by pastor Randy Pfaff, who runs the the Cowboy Church at the Crossroads congregation that pays $800 a week to worship in the school every Sunday.
But as part of an agreement between Basevitz and Fremont RE-2 School District that was filed on Wednesday, the 100-plus-member Cowboy Church, is no longer welcome to host its services at Florence High School despite the fact that countless other congregations are allowed to worship in various public schools across the United States.
Pfaff told The Christian Post in a Thursday interview that he feels his congregation's rights have been violated and added that any complaints lodged against him and his congregation in the Basevitz lawsuit are false.
"They were lies. That is exactly what they were," Pfaff asserted. "I have never met the man. He said that I was preaching at him and doing things and that I was offensive to him, but I have never met him and never had any communication. I don't even know who he is. I couldn't pick him out."
Along with the Sunday services, Pfaff also ran a club that met every Wednesday during lunch hour where free pizza was handed out to any person who chose to come by.
"He was certainly welcome to join us around the flagpole or come and get a piece of pizza on Wednesday and leave," Pfaff said. "All kinds of faiths did that but for some reason he didn't want to."
The agreement additionally prohibits the school district, which also includes two elementary schools and a middle school, from allowing school facilities to be used by any group that "impairs the district's ability to carry out its educational mission, including groups that create a reasonable risk of liability for violation of constitutional mandates."
"Our main goal is to get the school district to obey the law and stop sponsoring religion," Basevitz's lawyer, Paul Maxon, told a Colorado NBC affiliate. "First, [Basevitz] was made to feel marginalized because this school had a de facto official religion that he wasn't a part of and then when he complained about it, he was kicked out of the school."
The agreement also lists nine other stipulations such as a ban on school employees engaging in religious activities and prayer with students, a ban on school-sponsored religious expression, a ban on school-sponsored prayer box requests, and a ban on all gatherings that involve prayer — including the gathering at the flagpole.
The congregation has temporarily moved its Sunday services to Penrose Park Community Center. However, Pfaff wants the congregation to be allowed to return to the school, which he says the congregation has paid between $20,000 and $25,000 to lease in the last three years.
"Our church gave out 31 college scholarships to kids that none of them go to our church. We were very involved with the school, and that was God that opened the doors and paved the way and we were excited to be used by Him there," Pfaff said. "The school district, the school board, the superintendent, principal were so happy with the things that were going on and all of a sudden, this happened.
"I know that they got intimidated by the teachers' union and an attorney and they didn't know which direction to take," Pfaff continued. "I think they are making a bad decision here and not doing what is right."
The Liberty Institute, a nationally renowned legal firm devoted to defending religious expression, will now be representing the church and help determine the best course of legal action that the congregation should take.
"Time will tell as God gets the final say in regards to what men and women do and the power they think they have or how they want to determine things and make choices. He gets the final say so in this," Pfaff argued. "We just want to make sure we are in His will and we respond the right way. How we we respond determines our future and our destiny."
