Joe Kennedy was a public high school football coach in Bremerton, near Seattle.\u00a0\u00a0Joe was a man of great faith, and at the end of \u201cFriday Night Lights\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019t, he would lose playing time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bremerton School District ordered Joe to stop. It wasn\u2019t the fact that he was praying, and it wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what\u2019s the problem with that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be apparent, in our \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d era, that teachers have enormous influence over the children in their care. The \u201cradical right\u201d 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\u2019t even exist. While there is no foundation for \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d, there is one kernel of truth: teachers do have a lot of influence over their students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u2013 they will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0But he was not.\u00a0\u00a0He was a coach at a public school, a \u201cgovernment\u201d school.\u00a0\u00a0And he received a paycheck as a government employee, a coach.\u00a0He represented the \u201cgovernment\u201d, whether he liked it or not.\u00a0\u00a0So when he made his public stand to pray, the \u201cgovernment\u201d was encouraging prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I taught high school government, back in a less polarized time, I\u2019d open my lesson on government and religion by saying a prayer in my class: \u201cHare Krishna, Hare Krishna;\u00a0\u00a0Hare, Hare, Krishna, Krishna\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0I asked my students if this is what they meant when they said teachers should be able to pray with students in school.\u00a0\u00a0That wasn\u2019t the prayer they expected, and it started the conversation.\u00a0\u00a0The point was clear:\u00a0\u00a0most of my students didn\u2019t mind \u201cschool prayer\u201d, as long as it was the \u201cprayers\u201d they believed in.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Playing time on a high school football team is one of the hottest issues in coaching. Every kid wants \u201cin the game\u201d, and every parent wants to see their kid on the field. It\u2019s 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 \u201cfield time\u201d decisions are subjective, made by the coaches. It\u2019s easy for a marginal player to think that, \u201cThe coach doesn\u2019t like me, that\u2019s why I\u2019m not in the game\u201d. And while that\u2019s not usually true, any player action that might upset the coach, could become an issue of playing time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when the coach who\u2019s making the decision indirectly \u201casks\u201d 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\u2019s about \u201cbeing a team player\u201d, sticking with \u201cbrothers on the field\u201d. To a high school kid it\u2019s all very coercive, whether they believe in the religious views or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019 same right. They would be allowing him to \u201cestablish\u201d religion for the team. The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a different era. The Supreme Court is dramatically \u201cconservative\u201d. They may break the precedent of a wall between government and religion. Five Justices might not see \u201cthe harm\u201d of that prayer in the middle of the field. And you\u2019ll hear all sorts of comparisons to Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick and Tim Tebow. But there are a couple of critical points to consider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cthe government\u201d. They acted on their own beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201chuddle\u201d before the competition, the last \u201csage\u201d words from me \u2013 the coach. Then, for several years, some of our athletes would move on to have a brief \u201cprayer huddle\u201d. That was their right. We (the staff) weren\u2019t part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m not convinced the school district would have agreed, but that\u2019s what I would have done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cfamily\u201d of love for my teams. That was by far enough. It was up to my athletes and their parents to determine religious matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court should keep it that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"