I understand your point, but I don't think you are taking into consideration the SC rulings about separation of church and state which you can't just ignore because you believe you are right (and many agree that you are, I am sure). SCOTUS ruled in the Santa Fe case that "School sponsorship of a religious message is impermissible because it sends the ancillary message to members of the audience who are nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community. " U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Santa Fe v. Doe, (2000).
And in your own words, the coach could have been (unintentionally) causing others to feel excluded or offended.
The problem was with the coach's personal insistence on involvement; he is an official representative of the "state". The players were not forbidden to pray on their own. An individual student player or sports fan can engage in prayer by himself at school games and a number of students, on their own, can decide to group together and engage in prayer.
That aside, the more I read, the more I find myself agreeing with you that a lot of these arguments are stretches of the SC decisions, but so often this happens because, as we stated way way back on the thread, it's about gaining some power and control over a long-reigning majority which can necessitate some loud noise and cause some overreaction.
And the use of separation of church and state as a weapon certainly isn't confined to the non-religious. As a library aide in my boys' school, I spent a silly morning taking down all the witches and jack o'lanterns on the bulletin board and replacing them with blank pumpkins because some Christian parents complained that the school was promoting a pagan celebration. This same group was behind a book banning attempt that same year. (they lost, even here in Bible Belt territory) It's very hard to stay on a level, reasonable path when extremists from either side are dragging down the tolerant and rational. |
