Separation of Faith and Football?
It’s almost as if they’re toying with us. The U.S. Supreme Court justices, that is.
In May, a draft opinion on the Mississippi abortion law case was leaked by some unscrupulous insider at the court. It indicated that either a 5-4 or 6-3 decision was in the works, reversing Roe v Wade and tossing the issue of abortion back to the states.
It was assumed that the Chief Justice would release that opinion as soon as it was finalized, but that didn’t happen. In fact, the coy court is sitting on several critical rulings as they release the more banal ones.
Court decisions are released in June and a mob of abortion enthusiasts assembled near the Court building Monday morning in anticipation.
They were disappointed. Their riot had to be postponed.
Most of the current hype is around the abortion case and an important gun rights case out of New York.
But I’m eagerly awaiting another one: out of the state of Washington.
The Joseph Kennedy case.
This surrounds a beloved assistant high school football coach, described grudgingly by even The New York Times as “precarious, playful and popular” who lost his job because he had a habit of kneeling on the 50-yard line at the end of every game.
Win or lose, Kennedy paused in prayer he says, for “no more than 10 seconds,” to thank the Almighty. It was part of a “covenant” he made with God when took the part-time job eight years earlier.
This simple act offended those who no doubt believe that drag queen story hours in schools are fine but the sight of a Christian on his knees on a football field is offensive.
Complaints were made. Kennedy was suspended and the Bremerton School Board school did not offer Mr. Kennedy another contract.
Question is, were the actions of the coach protected by the First Amendment or did they violate it?
Remember, the Constitution provides that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…”
Does a school employee silently praying in public constitute the establishment of a religion? Or is the coach merely engaging in the free exercise of his religion?
I believe it’s the latter and it’s widely assumed that this will be a slam-dunk 6-3 decision in favor of the praying coach.
It should be unanimous.
Fact is, there is a lot of praying at football games. Much of it in the stands during key plays.
Opponents of the coach claim there could be a coercive aspect to the sight of a coach praying. In other words, players might feel pressured to join in. In front of the Supreme Court lawyers for the school actually argued that adolescents are easily influenced. Yep, these same folks who probably believe that teens are fully capable of changing their gender also believe that kids turn to Bible-thumping jelly when they see someone in prayer.
For many of us, the sight of someone pausing for a moment of prayer is touching, whether it’s an elderly couple joining hands to whisper a little blessing before eating in a restaurant or a football player pointing to the heavens after a touchdown.
To non-believers these acts may seem silly or superstitious. Still, arguing that a silent prayer on a football field amounts to the government establishment of religion borders on the preposterous.
The real question here is why a school board would let a couple of anti-religious malcontents convince them to fire a “gregarious, playful and popular” coach? Isn’t that precisely the sort of person one would want coaching teenagers?
