Joining in on postgame prayers?

Scribe, I'm afraid we're in the minority here (and it seems most everywhere) -- you know, when it's martial law that you respect everyone and everything, so long as it doesn't involve God.

I would much rather have to stand a few seconds while waiting for a team to thank God than to have to stand in line for a few minutes while going through metal detectors at a public high school just so I can cover a game.

 

Whenever it is a topic that goes against the liberal media, it is attacked viciously and vociferously. That is why nobody has the guts to bring up such a topic on here (or anywhere else, for that matter).

I'll just keep my mouth shut, like I used to do. But don't complain to me when you are forced to bow at the end of the world.

 

"I'll just keep my mouth shut" says guy who just posted three consecutive times.

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And I promise, the only time I'll be forced to bow is if I'm cast in The Karate Kid V

 

I'll bow to this, or at the very least, second it. Well said, Kaylee.

As near as I can tell, the earliest was 1962 during Engel vs. Vitale, some 35 years after the Bath bombings, the Supreme Court ruled that school prayer was unconstitutional because it contradicted the Establishment Clause of the first amendment.

So much for prayer preventing violence.

 

I can't improve on Kaylee's comments.

Well done.

 

My preseason tab cover story focused on the idea of religion and football. It's a long one. ...

FAITH ON THE FIELD

By WES HUETT
OF THE JOURNAL STAR

Talk to Adam Duvendack about the upcoming high school football season and the Metamora senior measures his statements. The low-key running back focuses on the growth of himself and his teammates. What happens on the field is important but remains secondary.

Talk about his faith and Duvendack’s voice picks up pace, his words quick and confident.

“I’m not sure what God has in store for me,” Duvendack says. “I get up every day and everything I do is to honor Jesus. It keep you going. ... It’s easier to practice, easier to get through the day, when you have a purpose.”

Faith and football always seem to run in tandem, from Hail Mary passes to players raising hands to the sky after a touchdown.

The Journal Star has examined the role faith plays in football programs across central Illinois. The newspaper spoke with coaches about pregame moments of silence and the political ramifications of broaching the subject of separating church and state.

“Many factors bring sports and religion together,” says Bob Fuller, professor of religious studies at Bradley University. “The fundamentals of religion build group cohesiveness, where people are asked to put aside themselves for the group, and football is one of the most complete team sports.”

Fuller says religion can help players keep one another in check, as a means to watch over off-field conduct. If players have a common goal, or common belief, religion can offer a sense of purpose.

“Kids try to come off macho and tough, but when it comes to things like this, kids are humbled,” Central coach Gary Beard says. “It becomes ingrained in athletes.”

Fuller says the bunker mentality of football lends itself well to religion.

“No atheists in fox holes, or the like,” he says. “Some see it not unlike war or battle, with players looking for an added source of protection.”

Prominent in preps

Jeff Schwarzentraub knows first hand about the powers of faith and football.

The 36-year-old former Richwoods and Illinois quarterback is founder and president of Peoria-based One Heartbeat Ministries and also is a volunteer coach at his high school alma mater. He works primarily with the freshman class.

Schwarzentraub says his spirituality bloomed after he left high school, when he attended a Young Life camp in Minnesota. He is not alone.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has groups at 8,000 junior high schools, high schools and colleges throughout the country that reach 350,000 athletes, according to the FCA Web site. Of those groups, 80 percent are in high schools.

“Faith is more than a bunch of religious activities,” says Schwarzentraub, who helped lead Richwoods to a Class 5A state title in 1988. “It was when I built that personal relationship with God that my faith truly began to grow.”

Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, says more than half of the nation’s high school football coaches engage in some form of team prayer. Locally, that number appears to be larger.

Of the 14 schools in the Mid-State 6 and Mid-Illini conferences, all but one hold at least a moment of silence before they take the field each autumn weekend.

“I consider myself a Christian, and I’m not afraid to say that,” Dunlap coach Jeff Alderman says. “Usually in a public school, that’s taboo. And especially at Dunlap. We’re diverse.”

Alderman has faced critics in the past. When he coached at Piasa Southwestern, some complained of his pregame methods. Now, he goes strictly with a student-led moment of silence - like many in the area.

“In anything that’s competetive and that aggressive like football,” Alderman says, “you better realize your spiritual side is also important.”

Pekin coach Dale Patton isn’t shy about leading his team in a pregame moment, but he is aware of the tightrope.

“There’s such a fine line there,” says Patton, in his 22nd season in a coaching career that includes two seasons at a Catholic school, Decatur St. Teresa. “It’s just a tradition, and we’ve never had a problem. I don’t make the kids do it.

“I also don’t allow the kids to wear earrings, and I make them say ‘Yes, sir’ and ‘Yes, ma’am,’ ... there’s enough I already make them do.”

Togetherness first

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution spells out the separation of church and state, which doesn’t prevent public-school students from praying while they’re at school - or while participating in school-sponsored events like football. Equal-access laws have cleared the way for student-led religious groups, as long as they’re voluntary.

Metamora’s football team holds an optional devotional, held after weekly film study. Duvendack says local religious leaders come in as speakers, and about one-quarter of the team attends. Metamora coach Pat Ryan observes while students or student-invited guests lead the religious session.

Duvendack, fellow JS all-area player Alex Luhring and current Western Illinois linebacker Teague Dentino, a former Metamora player, also attend weekly off-campus bible studies, as have many past Redbirds. Dentino, the 2006 JS Player of the Year, says he owes a trememdous amount of his success to his faith.

“It’s been a good thing, but you don’t earn your starting spot by whether or not you go to devotional,” Ryan says. “They know it’s seperate. It’s a personal thing and if kids are there, they want to be there.”

Similar sentiments come from other coaches.

Washington coach Darrell Crouch says he has strong faith, and his players say the Lord’s Prayer in the locker room before games. Crouch stands to the side during that period, which he calls one of fellowship and unity.

Many coaches fall in this realm. Whether or not a moment of silence before a game constitutes prayer, most of the coaches the JS interviewed agree this quiet time’s primary task isn’t to preach or support a religion but proves a team-building exercise.

Many people, one goal.

“You’re not promoting religion,” Morton coach Hal Chiodo says. “You’re promoting student togetherness.”

Since he began coaching, in 1979, Chiodo’s teams always have taken a moment of silence before games. He finds peace in the time, as do his players, he says.

“I’ve had players from Muslims to atheists and no one has said a word,” says Chiodo, who is aware of the sticky situation that can arise if a misstep occurs. “I kind of keep waiting for the day when someone complains. ... but we’re not jamming anything down a kid’s throat. It’s something I’ve found kids are in favor of.”

Unofficially, it’s fine

Problems arise when an authority figure like a coach leads the moments. In a 2000 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said a Texas school district gave the impression of sponsorship when students used school equipment and were under the direction of a faculty member when reciting a pregame prayer over a stadium’s loudspeaker.

Paul Lermack, a professor of political science at Bradley, says coaches and teachers are public officials who are paid by tax dollars and therefore can’t support a specific religion.

“If it’s something the coach does, it’s probably illegal,” Lermack says. “Only one student has to be uncomfortable and you can have a lawsuit. The (American Civil Liberties Union) is always on the lookout for that.

“If kids were to get together in a location on their own and pray, they can do that. What students do themselves is very different than when a school does it.”

Adam Schwartz, a senior staff lawyer for the ACLU of Illinois, agrees. If the group is not sponsored by the school, the ACLU has no problem.

Many central-Illinois communities are predominantly Christian, and few will raise ire with a football team’s praying before a game. That still doesn’t make the act correct, Schwartz says.

“When a coach directs players to, for instance, take a knee and pray to God, the problem exists right then,” he says. “The complaints only bring public attention to the problem.”

And the problem comes mainly with exclusion. Children who wish to not take part in a pregame moment of silence or prayer can, of course, step outside the locker room.

“The whole purpose of this ritual is to create unity. Why would a kid remove himself from that circle?” Schwartz says. “You’re dealing with 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds who are susceptible to peer pressure.”

About 85 percent of American adults consider themselves religious, according to an American Religious Identification Survey conducted in 2001 by The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Of those, 95 percent consider themselves Christian or a similar denomination.

What’s more, two recent surveys from CBS News and Gallup show more than half of Americans feel spirituality and religion should play a larger role in schools. Although a Newsweek survey from 2002 agrees, many believe those schools should not promote a specific religion - just religious values.

Fuller, who realizes the benefits of religion, also sees downsides of school-sponsored prayer.

“This fosters a lot of issues,” he says. “As a religious-studies professor, I’ve learned that people not only need freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion.”

Schwarzentraub’s life is defined by his faith and his football career. And the minister says it’s impossible to divorce the two, even when coaching.

“Faith and football, spiritual and secular. If you believe in the principles of a faith, you live out those values as you play football,” says Schwarzentraub, who is beginning his fourth year as volunteer assistant at Richwoods.

He strives for a healthy balance.

“My job is not to proselytize, but to be a coach,” he says. “They brought me in to teach kids how to take a snap, how to drop-step ... We have people of a lot of faiths and I respect those beliefs, but I also live my life in such a way that my values are attributed to my faith, and that is the way I coach.”

 

Anybody wanna hear some Jesus jokes?

 

As near as I can tell, the earliest was 1962 during Engel vs. Vitale, some 35 years after the Bath bombings, the Supreme Court ruled that school prayer was unconstitutional because it contradicted the Establishment Clause of the first amendment.

So much for prayer preventing violence.

Oh, so the last kids raised on public-school prayer brought us the 1960s. Great policy.

 

"I was on the sideline to shoot a game earlier this year and was totally shocked by the amount of times the players used the F word. We can tolerate that, but gosh leave prayer out."


We definitely can tolerate that, because Dick Cheney has freed us from needless constraints against the word "fuck." When he said "Fuck you" to Sen. Leahy on the floor of the Senate, kids everywhere knew they could say "fuck" with impunity. It advanced our national vernacular and rescued it from prudishness. And prominent conservatives, keepers of standards, didn't even complain!

 

I lost the thread here a bit.
I thought we were talking about people like us joining in.
That's a big "no."
As are mandated prayers in public schools, on the field or not.

 

So does that make you a heathen, a Pagan or a Communist?