Internet commenters called it “political correctness gone amok” and “the epitome of hypocrisy” and asked, “What’s the country coming to?”
The uproar was quick and intense when Bremerton School District in Washington suspended high school football coach Joe Kennedy. An Oct. 28 statement from the district said Kennedy refused to comply with the district’s order to “refrain from engaging in overt, public religious displays on the football field while on duty as a coach.”
Specifically, Kennedy regularly engaged in post-game prayer that was, according to a precedent set by a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The crux of the conflict lies in Kennedy’s position as a school employee and an authority figure. The school’s statement explained students are welcome to initiate and lead prayer, but an employee of the taxpayer-funded school district may not participate.
Pastor Brent Barnett, from Village of Hope Church in Indianapolis, said he thinks the coach had the right idea, but the execution was flawed.
“I feel like he is right in his desire to want to pray with the kids, but I would just want to be respectful of … those in authority,” he said. “The biggest thing for me is he was asked by the school district not to do that with the students on school time. It probably would’ve been better for him to do it elsewhere.”
Dante Yates II, team manager of and player on Indiana’s Tri County Braves semi-pro football team, said he understands both sides of the dispute.
But Yates’ team recently instituted a pre- and post-game prayer ritual that brings together both competing teams, and he sings the praises of the group prayer.
“It shows that it’s a brotherhood, and it’s a family,” he said. “Here we are, we’re hitting each other, there’s that competitiveness, but at the end of the day, we can all still come together and have this understanding that it is just a game, there’s bigger situations outside of the field.”
The major distinction to be made here is between public institutions — like the Bremerton School District — and private institutions — like Yates’ team. But Yates said he participated in team prayer even during his time in public school.
“I started playing football my fifth-grade year, and ever since then, we’ve done it,” he said. “I’ve never witnessed any uproar or anybody complain about it.”
Jim Allen, with Bloomington-based semi-pro football team the Indiana Cutters, said every team he’s ever been involved with has participated in group prayer to some extent, whether in the locker room or on the field. Like Yates’ team, Allen’s brings both teams together for a post-game prayer.
“It’s a good feeling when everybody’s gathered at the middle of the field, and you’re no longer enemies,” Allen said. “You just played a football game and beat each other’s brains out for 60 minutes, and everybody’s got a hand on each other’s shoulders to say a prayer together.”
Allen also coaches a youth league team, and he said he leads that team in prayer regularly too. The league asked Allen to get permission from each of his players’ parents, and they all gave the OK.
Allen said even the opposing teams started to take notice, so he began including them in the ritual. But eventually a parent of an opposing team player complained, so he’s back to praying only with his own team.
Allen said being a coach has shown him how strong the bond can be between a coach and his team, which is one reason he thinks the Bremerton situation is “terrible.”
“You really get attached to them. This guy’s a high school coach, and he’s not allowed to be on the field for their last game together. It’s just not right,” he said. “If somebody has a problem with somebody praying, look the other way.
“I think the school system out there overreacted. And I think they’re wrong.”
Constitutionality aside, Barnett said the entire Bremerton incident brings to light a larger societal issue: a general discomfort with sharing faith.
“I think our culture is very accepting of so many other things, and it seems like the faith perspective is the one thing people don’t want to hear about, don’t want to deal with, don’t want to see,” he said. “Religion is something that gives people a response. Everyone has a response to it. I think it makes people really uncomfortable.”
Barnett said the keys to working past that discomfort are three-fold and start with respect.
“The biggest thing we can do is to understand that regardless of how I feel about any religion, I want to be able to, as a human being, respect their opinions, respect their faith, respect their beliefs,” he said. “I think that’s the first thing, is just personal respect for each other.”
Next is finding common ground.
“We need to start understanding what our common issues are, because there are some things that affect everybody,” he said. “A hungry stomach doesn’t look up to the person who it belongs to and say you’re a Christian or you’re a Muslim. You’re just hungry. Someone on drugs is not a Christian addict or a Jewish addict. They’re someone on drugs, and they need help.
“We need to start coming together around the things that are common to all of us, because there’s a lot of things that intersect.”
Finally, look past the labels to love unconditionally.
“I’m a Christian pastor; I would love for people to meet Jesus. I think that’s awesome. But there will be some people who just won’t. And that’s OK. That’s cool,” Barnett said. “For the people who won’t, I’m not going to love them any less. I’m not going to judge them. I’m not going to condemn them. They’re not going to not be welcome where I am or where my church is.
“Even though it sounds cliché, just learn to love one another. Truly do that with no conditions.”
