Posted on 12/02/2005 12:04:27 PM PST by Crackingham
There are signs of faith and prayer everywhere you look in sports these days. The huddle of players kneeling in prayer on the field after every NFL game. Basketball players making the sign of the cross before shooting a free throw. Fingers pointed toward the sky after home runs and touchdowns. Signs for chapel services in baseball clubhouses. Bible study and Christian fellowship groups at high school and college campuses across the country.
"I don't think a relationship with the Lord only occurs in church or only in your own private lives," says Washington basketball coach Lorenzo Romar. "Every moment you walk, you want to live in such a manner that you are acknowledging God's presence. You're trying to be his advocate, his ambassador. I don't think we turn it on and off."
But not everyone is comfortable inviting God into the game. Five years after the Supreme Court reaffirmed a ban on officially sponsored prayer in public schools with a ruling that said students couldn't lead crowds in prayer before football games, the question of who can pray together - and how - is far from settled. A New Jersey high school football coach filed suit against his district two weeks ago, asking for the right to pray with his team before games. Marcus Borden had prayed with his East Brunswick players for years until some parents complained this fall and he was ordered to stop.
The family of a former New Mexico State football player plans to file a federal suit, claiming he was discriminated against because he's Muslim. MuAmmar Ali says he was criticized for reciting a prayer from the Quran instead of the "Our Father" the rest of the team was saying after practice, and was questioned about al-Qaida.
Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry was told last year to remove a banner from the locker room that displayed the "Competitor's Creed," including the lines, "I am a Christian first and last ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."
"A lot of these issues are manifestations of things that are good. Mainly, that we have pluralism," says Richard Garnett, a professor of constitutional law at Notre Dame. "We are committed to two different values, government neutrality and the freedom of speech. I wouldn't want to give up one for the other."
But trying to find a middle ground is difficult, and sometimes painful.
Mustafa Ali, MuAmmar Ali's father, used to think society could use more prayer in public arenas. He and some of his co-workers have moments of prayer at work, and neither he nor his son objected when the Aggies ended practice with a prayer. But MuAmmar says he was criticized when he and two other Muslim players held their hands up to their faces and recited the opening chapter of the Quran.
MuAmmar Ali says coach Hal Mumme later called him into his office to ask about al-Qaida. Ali, the team's leading rusher last year, lost his starting job after the season opener and was later dismissed from the team.
A law firm hired by New Mexico State to investigate a grievance filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Ali's behalf said it found no evidence of religious discrimination. But Ali's father says the family plans to pursue its complaint in a federal suit. A call to New Mexico State was not immediately returned.
"I think prayer is good. I'm actually for more of it, to be honest," Mustafa Ali says. "But I also think in these situations, the person should be able to pray how they want to pray. When you have a prayer that is a set prayer, then you alienate others and make them feel uncomfortable. It isn't as simple as people think it is."
The separation of church and state doesn't prevent public school students from praying while they're at school or participating in school-sponsored activities such as athletics. Equal-access laws have cleared the way for student-led religious groups, as long as they're voluntary.
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has groups at 8,000 junior high schools, high schools and colleges throughout the country, reaching 350,000 student-athletes, says Dan Britton, FCA's senior vice president of ministry programs. Eighty percent of the groups are in high schools.
Problems arise when an authority figure such as a coach, or the school itself, is involved. In a 2000 ruling that banned students from leading pregame prayers over loudspeakers, the Supreme Court said the Santa Fe, Texas, school district was giving the impression of sponsorship. Students were using school equipment and were under the direction of a faculty member.
"The degree of school involvement makes it clear that the pregame prayers bear the imprint of the state and thus put school-age children who objected in an untenable position," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote.
"I don't know how a student says no," says Anthony Griffin, the attorney who represented the two families who brought the Santa Fe case. "If I'm an athlete and I want to play football, why should I be put in a position of saying, `Coach, I don't want to do this.' Then you're not a team player.
"In team sports there's tremendous pressure to conform," Griffin says. "Having the coach lead the prayer session or encourage the prayer session is nothing more than coercion."
Sometime soon, I can envision the ACLU suing to prevent players from wearing christian symbols or from praying during sporting events conducted at publicly funded venues.
some places its very important.. like NASCAR. any sport that you run a good risk of dying is a very proper place for prayer before a game.
What a bunch of silly asses.
I just hope they stay away from the racetracks.
Matthew 6
"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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
We also see the chest thumping 'It's all me!' guys too. They must be representing the atheists.
Paul, an Apostle of Jesus said that he would that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. This is the will of God for every man. When the Supreme Court said we can't pray at a football game, they came against what God wanted and now he is removing them and replacing them. It wouldn't surprise me to see the balance of the court agree with God before Bush's term is over.
A football player for the Colts, Dallas Clark, was reprimanded and fined by the league for having a black cross drawn on the white band of tape around his wrist.
> When the Supreme Court said we can't pray at a football game...
Huh? When did *that* ruling come down?
In Texas it has been tradition for decades for the announcer or someone from the press box to lead the crowd in prayer for the Lord to watch over the players. The Supreme Court said it was unlawful. Of course I may quietly pray if I want, which is fine but my statement still stands, watch the Court overturn their ruling.
"I don't think a relationship with the Lord only occurs in church or only in your own private lives..."
If your relationship with God in only in church or your private life it isn't much of a relationship.
Ummm... ahem: "the Supreme Court said we can't pray at a football game" is *not* the same as "students couldn't lead crowds in prayer before football games."
As you yourself point out, you are free to pray all you like. It's when government agents (the school in this case) use their influence to lead prayer... that's trickier.
Besides: look at the state of publik edumacation. Do you really want the same people in charge of *that* trainwreck meddling in your religion???
There is a logical distinction between an organized public prayer (I can't think of a better term right now) at a public, state funded school or college and an organized public prayer at a professional sporting event. It's an understandable...note I did not say right or wrong...argument that the former is a governmental act promoting one religion over others, whereas the latter is a public expression of religion by individuals. Whether the Consitutional seperation between Church and State is correctly interpreted is a seperate question. I don't think the fact that a stadium is publically owned is enough to forbid public prayer either, since there is a rental or lease or something like that making its use for a sporting event a private activity. Just my opinion.
Yeah. "Disagreement." 99% of the public vs. ACLU.
So far as I know, all the USSC pronouncements on prayer in stadiums have had to do with schools.
Both these practices were sanctioned by the very same people who wrote the Constitution, I might add.
You extreme leftist interpretation of the establishment clause is just plain absurd.
> You extreme leftist interpretation ...
Fundamental error, negating all value of the rest of your post.
Ever notice that television cameras NEVER even get a fleeting shot of opposing football players kneeling in prayer at the 50-yard line after a game? It's like an allergic reaction may happen if prayer is seen!!!
Sure it is. If the tradition and "culture" of Texas is to pray over the players at a football game, and as most of the community at the game is led by a student or teacher in the announcers booth then "we" can't pray at a football game per our custom. Neither I nor the 200 people at the game have to silence ourselves because you might be offended and I am happy to say that at the most recent game I attended, the tradition is continued.
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