School football coach’s prayer habits spark debate on staff's religious rights https://t.co/dfeqUfb7rf
— Guardian US (@GuardianUS) October 30, 2015
A high school football coach known for praying on the field after games has been placed on paid administrative leave after Satanists asked to hold their own invocation at Thursday night’s game. Bremerton School District, located near Seattle, said late Thursday that coach Joe Kennedy had been placed on leave for his “refusal to comply with the District’s lawful and constitutionally required directives that he refrain from engaging in overt, public religious displays on the football field while on duty as a coach.”…. Kennedy had been asked not to pray on the field after games, but has continued to do so and has even threatened to sue the district. He was placed on leave shortly after the local chapter of the Satanic Temple said it had been invited by at least one student to give an invocation on the field after the game…. “The school district needs to create religious opportunity for everyone or ban it completely,” class president Abe Bartlett, one of the students who contacted the Satanic Temple, told the Kitsap Sun. “There can’t be a middle ground.”
Two weeks ago ago, I wrote about Joe Kennedy, the hyper-Christian football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington State with a penchant for showy public post-game prayers on football fields. Kennedy’s conviction that his “agreement with God” allows him to ignore the Constitutional separation of Church and State allowed him to feel his public prayers were sanctioned by the Almighty and therefore above the laws and strictures of mere mortals (including his employers).
Yeah, about that…it seems (thankfully) his employers disagreed with him on that point. Turns out the separation of Church and State (and obeying the instructions of one’s employers) means something in Bremerton, WA. Karma, meet Schadenfreude.
That Kennedy’s showy hyper-religiosity runs counter to the instructions of the Lord and Savior he purports to revere has proven inconvenient for Kennedy, and so he’s merely ignored it. In the end, it’s less about his devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ than it is about attracting attention and demonstrating what a good Christian he is:
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.
This is where the Satanic Temple enters the story, determined to ensure that religious freedom remains exactly that. As the Bremerton senior class President put it, “The school district needs to create religious opportunity for everyone or ban it completely.” Religious freedom doesn’t apply only to Christians as the majority religion. The Constitution doesn’t provide for “Christian freedom;” indeed, it specifies that government shall not advance the interests of one religion at the expense of others. It’s this wonderfully inspired thing the Founding Fathers called the Establishment Clause, and they stuck it in the 1st Amendment to help prevent America from descending into the sort of theocracy that Joe Kennedy and other “Christians” would welcome with open arms.
The district said that while no players complained about the prayer sessions, some may have felt coerced to join in. “It is very likely that over the years, players have joined in these activities because to do otherwise would mean potentially alienating themselves from their team, and possibly their coaches,” the statement said. “The District has a fundamental obligation to protect the rights of all of its students.”
The district didn’t mention the Satanists by name in its statement, but said it would not allow other groups to make use of the field during district functions such as the football game.
However, the Satanic Temple immediately released a statement of its own withdrawing its request to hold an invocation in light of the suspension.
“A big shout-out to the Bremerton School District for taking prompt and decisive action to stop coach Kennedy from continuing to violate the law with his public prayers while on duty,” Lilith Starr, head of the Seattle chapter of the Satanic Temple, wrote on Facebook. “By putting him on paid administrative leave and releasing a strongly-worded public statement, the district has sent an extremely clear signal that they will hold fast the line between church and state.”
So…no Satanic invocation after the game, which I find a bit disappointing. That could have made for a very good time, what with all the good Christians whose pacemakers would have burst in righteous outrage. I think it would have been rather entertaining watching the pointy little heads of Bremerton’s good, God-fearing “Christians” ‘sploding. In the end, though, it was a victory for freedom- religious and otherwise- and a statement reaffirming that the mere fact of being a majority doesn’t mean being able to ignore aspects of the Constitution you find “inconvenient.” Being a “Christian” doesn’t mean you’re under no obligation to obey the laws of man.
No person paid by taxpayers should be able to create a situation in which some might feel coerced to partake in an expression of religious faith they may or may not share. Kudos to the Bremerton School District for doing the right thing by suspending Kennedy and sending a clear message that they respect the separation of Church and State and expect they same of district employees.
No one’s saying that Kennedy can’t have his public post-game prayers…just that he can’t do it on school property. If he wants to organize a prayer circle at the local Chick-Fil-A, then more power to him. Nothing in the separation of Church and State or the district’s suspension can or should be taken as proscribing Kennedy’s right to privately worship as he sees fit. When he’s on the public dime, though, he’s serving ALL in the Bremerton School District, some of whom may not share his flavor of Christianity. It’s about showing respect for ALL faith traditions, not elevating the majority religion to the exclusion of others.
A public school district is about education, not proselytizing. Kennedy’s certain free to do that on his own time off school property, but being a “Christian” doesn’t mean having the right to do what you choose when and wherever you may choose. Some public spaces are and should remain secular…because the public education of our children shouldn’t be about coerced religious indoctrination.
A WWJD shout out also goes to Seattle’s Satanic Temple, whose actions highlighted the hypocrisy and unAmerican nature of Kennedy’s very public prayers. Remember, y’all; if you’re going to demand respect for your religious freedom, you need to be prepared to provide the same consideration to any and all other faith traditions who step up and demand the same. Calling yourself a Christian gives you no special claim to anything in the public sphere. That’s the beauty of the separation of Church and State. It’s also what keeps America from being a wealthier version of Iran or Saudi Arabia.
