A high school football coach who has been ordered to stop leading team prayers on the 50-yard line said on Thursday that he would continue the tradition at the risk of being fired because he has an “agreement with God.”…. Joseph Kennedy, head coach at Bremerton High School in Washington state, was told by the school district last month that his 9-year-old tradition of holding team prayers violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Although Kennedy agreed to stop pre-game prayers with a “captive audience” in the team locker room, the coach has said that he would continue the post-game prayers on the 50-yard line because players could choose not to join…. “It’s really incredible to see the whole entire team coming out there and joining us,” Kennedy told Fox News host Steve Doocy on Thursday. “And then it spread from there to the other teams, and now everybody in the league [is doing it]. We’ve had the opposing team, it doesn’t matter if it’s a home or away game, they have joined us out on the 50 for the whole thing.”…. “I kind of made an agreement with my personal faith and with God that this was something that I was going to do, and I was going to give him the glory after every single game, and do it on the 50,” the coach added. “I’m kind of a guy of my word, and I’m just going to go through with what I’ve always done.”
On today’s episode of “Being A Christians Means Never Having To Worry About Following The Constitution,” Joseph Kennedy will demonstrate that being a follower of Jesus Christ means being able to pick and choose which laws you’ll follow. I don’t believe in God, nor Kennedy’s self-absorbed flavor of Supreme Being, but I have no problem with him practicing his religion…when he’s not on the public’s dime. Whether or not Kennedy acknowledges it, the 1st Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits government from advancing the interests of one religion at the expense of others. Not only does the Establishment Clause proscribe the passage of laws favoring the interests of one religion, it “also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another.” Because Kennedy is a government employee paid by public tax money, his religious conduct- clearly advancing his Christianity- in the context of his job duties is in direct contravention of the Establishment Clause. In short, Kennedy believes himself to be above the law. By leading public prayers on a football field that is the property of a public school district, Kennedy’s behavior is blatantly unconstitutional.
Despite his claims of an “agreement with God,” which is apropos of nothing except a predilection for self-delusion, Kennedy is bound by the separation of Church and State. If he worked at a private, faith-based school, he’d have a valid argument. Because he’s a public school employee, he has two choices: stop leading public prayers on football fields after games…or be fired.
Liberty Institute attorney Hiram Sasser, who is representing Kennedy, asserted that “the coach has a right as a citizen to be able to go out there and personally pray, and he doesn’t have a duty to flee the scene if other kids happen to come along.”
No one is saying, or even implying, that Kennedy doesn’t have a right to practice his religion; he absolutely does, and I’m certainly not about to advocate for denying him that right. When he deems that his “agreement with God” allows him to violate the constitutional separation of Church and State, that’s a bridge too far. As a public employee, he cannot advance the interests of his religion while on the public dime. He’s free to take his prayer gathering off school property, but as long as he’s performing the duties of his position, he cannot lead a public prayer.
I hope the Freedom From Religion Foundation will sue Kennedy and the Bremerton School District from here until Christmas. If they openly refuse to respect the Constitution, they should be penalized for not doing so and forced into compliance. Kennedy, godly man that he believes himself to be, might also be well advised to read his Bible; f’rinstance, how about starting with Matthew 6:5?
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
Unfortunately, Kennedy is exactly like the hypocrites, who in this case kneel in prayer on football fields in order that they may be seen by others. He believes himself unbound by the concerns of mere mortals…or in this case, the Establishment Clause…because of his “agreement with God.”
Kennedy said that he planned to go ahead with team prayers at Bremerton’s home coming game on Saturday.
“I really don’t believe I’ll be fired for what I’m going to do,” the coach insisted. “You know, I have a higher power that I answer to.”
“My lawyers have said that I’m well within my rights.”
Actually, Kennedy needs to find better lawyers, because the ones he currently has seem to be far more attuned to ideological and theolgical issues than the law. A public employee simply doesn’t have the right to violate the Constitution because he finds it inconvenient. He can follow the law or be fired. For my part, I hope Monday morning will find him a former football coach looking for a job. Then again, if he wants to work in a place with there’s no such thing as separation of Church and State, I hear Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia are beautiful this time of year.
