The faith-based Average Joe opened in theaters last weekend. The film, based on the true story of Bremerton High School football coach Joe Kennedy, landed in the Top 15 at the box office but had to compete with October’s litany of horror releases. It may have to rely on its digital release if it leaves theaters soon. 

 

It deserves to stay. It’s a great story that unfolded over 110 minutes in the theater but encapsulated almost fifty years of Kennedy’s life, including his 14-year fight through the court system to protect his constitutional right to pray.

 

Kennedy (Eric Close) wasn’t fighting for a faith he’d protected from childhood. In fact, Kennedy had a very troubled upbringing before enlisting in the Marines with a firm belief that God didn’t care about him at all. 

 

When he finally surrendered his life and his will to God, he made Him a promise: he’d take a knee and thank God after each game they played, win or lose. Over time, the players asked to join him. He neither recruited nor required. But he wasn’t telling them no. 

 

Nor was he letting anyone tell him he couldn’t pray. It wasn’t only a faith commitment, it was a constitutional right. He wasn’t going to let anyone take his away. 

 

Though he’d grown up fighting, Kennedy insisted this wasn’t about a fight. In the trailer before the film started, the real life Coach Kennedy explained, “I didn’t want to fight with the school. These were my friends. But I had to take a stand.”

 

It wasn’t an easy stand. Protestors gathered. Crank calls abounded. And while the kids supported their coach’s fight, his wife Denise (Amy Acker) hated it. Not only did she not understand why her husband was doing this for years, she worked for the school district and they were treating her like the enemy.  

 

“But it’s a great love story,” Kennedy shares in the pre-film clip. Not only does it show the love between husband and wife as they came together over an issue bigger than themselves, but it shows their love and obedience toward God. 

 

“He’s a modern day Gideon,” says First Liberty Institute. First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans. They believe that every American of any faith—or no faith at all—has a fundamental right to follow their conscience and live according to their beliefs.

 

The show even publicizes a QR code before the movie begins where you are directed to current cases this firm is fighting. They take no fees, selecting cases that are integral to retaining the rights our forefathers set in place. Visit https://firstliberty.org/featured-cases/ for info on pending cases and opportunities to pray for them. 

 

Coach Kennedy wondered for a long time why God picked him for such a monumental task. He didn’t realize the resilience and strength he’d been growing his entire life prepared him for such a journey. But an even simpler self-realization emerged. 

 

“I did this because SOMEONE had to be willing to take a stand.”