The Supreme Court wraps up one of its most disastrous sessions in history this week. It leaves in its wake the ability for individuals to carry guns openly and more freely in public, a decision that was announced while Congress was across town actually working together to put the first modest gun legislation together in years and of course in the aftermath of the slaughter of children in Uvalde, Texas. While political and emotional consideration should never sway the highest judicious body in the land, it was certainly not a good look for this Donald Trump appointee-packed Court.
This was arguably the most minor of its infractions on the safety, security, and freedoms of the American people. It ruled to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision. I have two lengthy posts on this decision, so it is unnecessary to elaborate here, save to remind the reader that the decision is not one of simply ending a birth control option for party girls who can’t keep their legs together, it is an issue that impacts a multitude of medical issues for women and reinforces a Constitutional and Societal definition of Women as second-class citizens.
If allowing citizens to strap on six-shooters and putting women in their place was not enough, this Court decided that it was time to start breaking down what Jefferson called a “wall of separation” between church & state**. The Court ruled on a case this week in which a football coach made it a practice to kneel and pray on the football field after games. He waited until after the games, but players did join in raising concerns over the separation of church & state. The Court ruled that he could continue his post-game ritual. Many Christians are praising this decision, I have even seen friends that would otherwise have issues with prayer in school, say this is okay… If you care to read another long post from me, I’ll tell you why everyone should be terrified of this decision.
A central theme in the foundation of our Country, along with one the big one – Taxation without Representation – was Religious Freedom. While many of the Colonies were extensions of the Crown, some colonies were begun by or largely populated by individuals who fled the insanity of the English Reformation and its lingering effects to have a place where they could practice religion as they defined it.
Let me explain that a bit more in case you are not a history nerd like me and please, a note to anyone who will take offense I am trying to be very general, a bit satirical, but get the reality across!
The English Reformation was a time when England broke away from the Catholic Church and started its own Church. I’m not going to explain why here, you can look up the real reasons or go watch ‘The Tudors’ for a more sensationalized version. (And yes, I realize there was more to it than an ageless Henry the VIII needing a divorce.)
During this time Christianity split into Catholics and Protestants, drawing lines in the religious sand that exist to this day. The Protestants, then decided it was so cool to split Christianity, they would split it into a gazillion denominations, enough to make your head spin. The fun part is that many of the denominations claim that their set of collective beliefs is the only way to spend eternity in heaven or be saved (depending on the terminology the denomination uses). To further complicate things Christianity has a guidebook, or the Word of God called the Bible of which there are several different versions. Here to, different churches claim different versions are THE one you are supposed to read and live by, or this one is better than that one. The versions contain essentially the same content, although some have extra books and some sound more Shakespeare.
During the English Reformation, depending on who was in charge and what box they checked on the religion category, your life as a member of one of the big two or one of the denominations could be breezy and fun (except if the plague was in town) or totally hell depending on who was in charge. Since nations identified themselves as “a Christian State” or “Muslim State”, keeping in mind they didn’t use those terms but certainly identified themselves as members of Christianity or Islam, Religion was specifically tied to the government of the State. When The Church of England was formed the King was made its head.
Crossing the pond, it is no small wonder that when someone did a head smack after the Constitution was ratified and said “Rights! we forgot to ensure some Rights!”, that the first one the Founders addressed in the First Amendment was ensuring that Government could not make laws that established religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… These guys knew what had happened to people who had been at best harassed and at worst tortured and killed for their religious beliefs or refusal to participate or comply with the state-established or endorsed practices in England. The Establishment clause was meant to ensure that no Federal, State or local government would ever put into place a law, requirement, policy, and I would argue influence that any citizen participates in a specific religion. It also says that government cannot prohibit individuals from exercising their religious freedoms.
It is in this spirit that the Court found in Engel v. Vitale that prayer in school violated the establishment clause. The majority noted that religion is very important to a vast majority of the American people. Since Americans adhere to a wide variety of beliefs, it is not appropriate for the government to endorse any particular belief system. This is one of those things in our society that you may not like on the surface, but you have to step back and realize that there is a larger precedent at work. It protects everyone’s freedom to practice (or not practice) the religion they have chosen or rejected.
In this case, the coach has every right to bow his head standing on the sideline and thank God almighty for the safety of the players and whatever he is talking to God about. He can do so quietly and privately with little notice. I have prayed countless prayers, at countless times, in countless locations, and if you were standing next to me on a football field or at a restaurant, you would never know. I was taught in Sunday School and Church that you can pray to God anywhere, anytime, of course, this may not be true for this coach and his denomination.
This misses the point, however. In a case like this, the coach is in a position of leadership for the school. He is wearing attire that denotes association with the school’s athletics programs. He is standing on school property. He is conducting a religious ceremony in the post-game period when others are still present. Doing so acknowledges that others will see him, including his players, and as we know join him. In this scenario, what do you do as a player if your home is atheist or agnostic? Jewish? Muslim? Do you join in, so you don’t feel left out? Do you walk away and be noticeably absent? In this situation, it most likely won’t be the Coach that will give the kids problems, it will be the other players.
The players of different races, religions, or denominations (if this is a more rural area) may already be teased to harassed about their differences. Then Coach decides prayer after the game to honor God is a good idea. At first, it is just him and a couple of players. Pretty soon most of the team is participating in the after-game prayer… except the atheist and the two or three players from other religions.
From my own firsthand experiences, I have seen this happen and it’s ugly. My parents and grandparents were state-side missionaries. My grandparents helped start churches and Sunday Schools in rural parts of Arkansas and Kentucky and eventually settled into a ministry of going to the schools to do bible programs. Yes! Bible programs in schools! This of course changed with Supreme Court decisions. I remember when my Grandparents came to do their program at my school. My Papaw was a clown, he did magic tricks and did all kinds of funny things. My grandmother told exceptional stories and played the accordion! They tied all of this into stories from the Bible and “good morals” stories. Everyone loved it!!!
There were two kids of Jehovah’s Witness faith at our School. They both had to remain with their teachers while the entire rest of the kids in the elementary school attended the program my Grandparents put on because it was not approved by their parents and their faith to attend the program. These two kids were excluded because religion had invaded the state’s domain, which was supposed to be a safe place for education. These two kids were not receiving education at the time, and they were shamed by their peers for being different and not attending with the other kids.
Public school should be a place where students of all faiths (or no faith) are attending to learn math, reading, science, etc.,… the last time I checked we are not living in one of those countries where religious zealots run the government and force the rule of God as the rule of law down our throats. (Although it is starting to feel that way… a tiny bit….)
As much as I respect the life’s work of my Grandparents and the time my parents spent finishing their work after they retired when I think about what happened with those children now as a parent, I have feelings of disbelief. The principles of religion should be taught at home and in church. And yes, to those who may comment I understand that some children have broken homes and will not receive this kind of religious instruction, but it still does not mean that school (aka the State) is the place where religion is taught. I can’t imagine what I would do if my son came home and told me that a particular religious group came to his school and was given an hour to tell the whole student body about their doctrine.
The Coach’s use of the football field to kneel and pray with his coach’s hat on or over his heart says to kids that this person in authority is sanctioning a behavior as part of school activity. I’m sorry, I don’t care how you explain it. We know that adult brains do not fully develop until their 25. We are asking 15 – 17-year-old kids to “man-up or “woman-up” and make religious decisions based on one adult’s decision, who is not their parent, and based on what they feel according to their religious beliefs. No. It’s not right.
If the coach or any coach wants to organize something with the kids that go to his church afterward at his house with their parents or at a local restaurant, Great. But he is using taxpayer state or local government property to exercise his own personal religious freedom and ultimately putting pressure on kids. This decision will let others do the same.
What will be the reaction be when it is someone from a different religion that wants to do a religious practice after a game or before school starts and lets students join in? What will be the reactions of everyone who is so thankful this coach gets to do prayer after the game be then? If your honest answer is that you will celebrate, then good for you! If you look deep within yourself and realize that you are terrified that a Jewish, Muslim, or maybe a Mormon teacher might invite your Baptist Christian student to participate in religious activity on school property before school starts or after a game and it terrifies you…. First, you may want to do some deep thinking about that and second, you may understand a bit more about the problem with the ruling. I hope you are thinking like me and saying NO, no to all of it! How about teachers and kids go to school and do school stuff and then go back to their personal lives and do religious stuff.
I will close with this… Prayer is a wonderful thing. The conversations that I have had with God during some of the worst times were sustaining and critical to my life, and prayers said to God in praise have been true moments of joy. I did them on my own and thinking about it right now I’m glad I did not have any restrictions or fear of government when I did them.
Once you break down the wall of separation you can’t go back. You may have noticed by ** when I mentioned Jefferson’s “wall of separation”. This was to draw attention to the extra special news about Representative Lauren Boebert, Republican, Colorado said recently on one of her campaign stops that she is tired of the separation of church and state. That she thinks it only came from Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association and that the Church should just tell the government what to do… Um, which church? Her church? Donald Trump’s Church? The Seven Sisters of the 3rd Dimensions Church? This is an elected member of Congress telling a campaign stop that she’s tired of part of the Constitution which she clearly does not understand, not to mention her lack of understanding of the meaning of ‘representative republic”.
The decisions of the past two weeks and statements of congressional members like her should scare you. Children being massacred should scare you. Women being second-class citizens again should scare you. It has scared the hell outta me. That’s why I’m writing ridiculously long Facebook posts that eventually only Betsy will read because she has to 😊 This is not the America I want for my son and my nieces. I want them to know religious freedom, freedom as citizens, and to make it through the next school year alive.
