Wow, this took guts.

Eric Owens of The Daily Caller has the story.

Public school valedictorian recites Lord’s Prayer at commencement to raucous cheers [VIDEO]

Meet Roy Costner IV, this year’s valedictorian at Liberty High School in Liberty, South Carolina.

At the school’s commencement ceremony on Saturday at Littlejohn Coliseum on the campus of Clemson University, Costner defied pressure to keep religion out of the public-school event in a fairly epic way.

He walked to the podium with his school-approved speech in hand. Then, in front of the crowd, he tore the thing up, reports local NBC-affiliate WYFF.

After speaking for a bit, the senior cut to the quick…

Costner then proceeded to recite a full-length version of the Lord’s Prayer, the pivotal Christian prayer that is attributed to Jesus in the both the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew.

The audience members began to cheer tentatively and then heartily once they realized what Costner was saying. The applause eventually became so loud that it drowned out Costner’s voice.

At the end of the prayer, after Costner says, “Amen,” the audience breaks into another round of wild applause.

Here’s the video.