The law is designed to prevent an authority figure, however unintentionally, from forcing students into an activity which by its very nature is exclusive to some. It places a player in a pressure situation to "belong" or be divisive.
Team prayer is not a skill needed for playing football, and it's not essential to decvelop unity, however nice the tradition is.
In one of the news stories, another coach is quoted as saying that God should be his student-athletes' top priority, just ahead of family, schoolwork, and football, and part of his job is to impart good values to his team.
If someone can't see the problem with this statement, then it explains why we have the law and why it has to be enforced.
The coach violated this law regarding separation of church and state, and when he was called on it, he walked out. He knew the rules. If he couldn't live by them, he should have worked on change, or not taken the job- or worked in a parochial school perhaps. This is not a question of principle. No one was telling him he couldn't believe, or pray alone for this team's well-being, or that a student couldn't lead a group prayer, or even that he couldn't call for a quiet time where everyone could think about God, or the pending game. What he was being told is that he, the head coach, by law, could not assume a leadership prayer position with his players. The players are not being told they can't pray.
I am not rabid about separation of church and state. For instance, I believe that much of our literary and musical heritage heavily relies on the Church and should be included in curricula. But it is this kind of event that shows us how we can't rely on the common sense of adults to know what is appropriate and when it is. He wasn't asked to deny his faith, merely to respect the law and his players. Making him the victim in this is missing the entire point. |
