Posted on 05/17/2005 7:18:27 PM PDT by pangaea6
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden said Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry is fighting the government over the role of religion on his team. Bowden brought up DeBerry while speaking to the Southern Colorado Fellowship of Christian Athletes on Sunday night. Last season, DeBerry was asked to remove a banner from the locker room which displayed the “Competitor’s Creed,” including the lines “I am a Christian first and last ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.” “Fisher is fighting a heck of a battle over here at your academy (with) the U.S. government,” Bowden was quoted as saying in the Gazette of Colorado Springs. “He’s fighting a heck of a battle because he happens to be a Christian, and he wants his boys to be saved. I want my boys to be saved.” Bowden’s comments came as a Pentagon task force investigates claims of religious intolerance at the academy, including cases in which a Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and another was called a Christ killer by a fellow cadet. “We realize we have other religions with us,” Bowden said. “The coach has a responsibility to these boys to try to influence their spiritual life, their physical life and their academic life. ... We know we’re going to get challenged on it, but that’s what we believe in. I ain’t gonna back down.” Bowden also said prayer was a large, yet voluntary, part of his football program and encouraged athletes to be more vocal about their beliefs. “The problem with us Christians is we won’t speak out,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
God bless him. That's great.
Well bow-den is probably in a fight about how much he can pay his players this year.
Well bow-den is probably in a fight about how much he can pay his players this year.
I am a proud member of the religious right... A Southern Baptist... But I don't want the Air Force Academy forcing cadets to become Christians.
I hope it's not true.
Bobby's boys have gotten into a few scrapes with the law over the years, but his program is basically clean. But full disclosure requires I mention that he is a neighbor of mine.
I don't want anybody forced to be a Christian, but we are supposed to spread the Good News of Christ. I don't suppose a person would be saved anyway if forced to say some words but it wasn't in their heart.
Talk about wide right!
Good one
OK, so USAFA football is officially "Christians only."
What it all comes down to is whether it's true that these people are being harrassed, or whether they are simply angry because someone has evangelized to them.
Unfortunately, I suspect it's the former, because if it was normal evangelism, they would not be complaining.
I don't complain if the SDAs visit me every blue moon. That's their prerogative, and it's mine to turn the tables on them and witness to them. But if the same guys came to my house week after week, then I'd just show them the door.
Relative to the standards of the day, I suppose it is. But those standards aren't especially clean imo.
Sort of and understatement. If he had been on the up an up he would have kicked them off the team. That is the reason for my like of respect for the man.
Wheres the Free Shoes U Alert! LOL!
"Acid..."
Yeah, I know where you are coming from. That's a possibility. On the other hand, I'm not going to assume that these cadets are simply overly anti-religious. I do think there should be an investigation, and if there is harrassment, then it should be stopped.
Maybe the evangelicals don't even realize that what they are doing is legitimately viewed as harrassment. The Bible says that if someone rejects the message of Christ, then shake the dust off your feet and go on to a different place. Maybe these particular evangelicals need to learn that lesson.
You're probably right. Some of the stuff that went down over the years was suspect. I'm really not much of an FSU fan. Had season tickets for a while before Bowden arrived, but lost interest over the years.
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