Teaching Religion

Under the Lights

Joe Kennedy was a public high school football coach in Bremerton, near Seattle.  Joe was a man of great faith, and at the end of “Friday Night Lights” game he walked out to the middle of the game field, took a knee, and prayed aloud. He thanked his God for the game, the health of his players, and pledged his own continued faith. 

The first time he did it alone, without fanfare, as the team members sang the alma mater with the crowd in the stands.  The second time a few athletes skipped the alma mater and came out to join their coach.  Over the season, more and more players came out.  In fact, Joe invited players and coaches from the opposing teams to join him in the middle of the field as well.  

It became so popular that some players felt pressured to participate.  At least one reported that he participated against his own beliefs, afraid that if he didn’t, he would lose playing time.  

The Bremerton School District ordered Joe to stop.  It wasn’t the fact that he was praying, and it wasn’t even about being on the field.  It was that Joe, acting as an employee of the public school, was going immediately after the game, crowd in the stands, lights on, and centering himself on the field to pray.  The School District felt he was essentially leading his players in prayer on the field.

And what’s the problem with that?  

Teacher Influence

It should be apparent, in our “Don’t Say Gay” era, that teachers have enormous influence over the children in their care.  The “radical right” has found in that a potent talking point; teachers are so influential that states like Texas and Florida and Ohio are writing laws to restrict what they say, fixing a problem that doesn’t even exist.  While there is no foundation for “Don’t Say Gay”, there is one kernel of truth:  teachers do have a lot of influence over their students.

So when a loved coach like Joe Kennedy goes out and prays in front of the players and fans and God, under the lights at the end of the game; and offers his players the chance to join him – they will.  

If Joe was coaching at Bremerton Christian School, where parents are paying to send their children to be in a Christian environment, his actions would be perfectly appropriate.  But he was not.  He was a coach at a public school, a “government” school.  And he received a paycheck as a government employee, a coach. He represented the “government”, whether he liked it or not.  So when he made his public stand to pray, the “government” was encouraging prayer.

When I taught high school government, back in a less polarized time, I’d open my lesson on government and religion by saying a prayer in my class: “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna;  Hare, Hare, Krishna, Krishna”.  I asked my students if this is what they meant when they said teachers should be able to pray with students in school.  That wasn’t the prayer they expected, and it started the conversation.  The point was clear:  most of my students didn’t mind “school prayer”, as long as it was the “prayers” they believed in.    

Playing Time

Playing time on a high school football team is one of the hottest issues in coaching.  Every kid wants “in the game”, and every parent wants to see their kid on the field.  It’s not like my sport of track and field, where the decisions are cut-and-dry; the fastest time, the farthest throw, the highest jump.  Football “field time” decisions are subjective, made by the coaches.  It’s easy for a marginal player to think that, “The coach doesn’t like me, that’s why I’m not in the game”.  And while that’s not usually true, any player action that might upset the coach, could become an issue of playing time.

So when the coach who’s making the decision indirectly “asks” players to join him on the field or in the locker room for prayer, some will see that as more than a religious decision.  It’s about “being a team player”, sticking with “brothers on the field”.  To a high school kid it’s all very coercive, whether they believe in the religious views or not.

In the Courts

Joe Kennedy took it as a matter of his own faith.  He refused to stop, and the Bremerton School District fired him from coaching.  He went to Federal Court, claiming that they violated his First Amendment right to freedom of religion.  The school responded that they if they allowed him to continue, they were violating their students’ same right. They would be allowing him to “establish” religion for the team.  The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.

It is a different era.  The Supreme Court is dramatically “conservative”.  They may break the precedent of a wall between government and religion.  Five Justices might not see “the harm” of that prayer in the middle of the field.  And you’ll hear all sorts of comparisons to Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick and Tim Tebow.  But there are a couple of critical points to consider.  

Kaepernick and Tebow both took a knee of the field, one during the anthem, one in end zone after scoring touchdowns.  There were both adults, in a game with other adults, and neither represented “the government”.  They acted on their own beliefs.

Player’s Decision

And the athletes on the high school football team could as well.  As a high school coach, I was very aware of both the staff role and the players rights.  If my players wanted to pray before their competition, they certainly could. We always had a team “huddle” before the competition, the last “sage” words from me – the coach.  Then, for several years, some of our athletes would move on to have a brief “prayer huddle”.  That was their right.  We (the staff) weren’t part of it.

I retired from coaching before Black Lives Matter, but if my athletes had determined they needed to make the protest and kneel during the national anthem, I would have supported their right to make that decision, without retribution.  I’m not convinced the school district would have agreed, but that’s what I would have done.

But through forty years of coaching, it was never my place to influence the religion (or politics) of my athletes.   I hoped to set a model of hard work, good fun, success, and create a “family” of love for my teams.  That was by far enough.  It was up to my athletes and their parents to determine religious matters. 

The Supreme Court should keep it that way.