Joining in on postgame prayers?

I'd rather be guilty of that sin than yuk it up in pressers with cretins like Belichick and Knight. Yes, Bill Belichick has a laugh track sometimes in some of his pressers. I've heard it. He's such a humorous chap, don't you know by now?

Talk about a responsive liturgy.

 

If I've got a little bit of time before deadline, I'll usually tell the kids I want to talk to them just after they get out of the hand-shaking line before they get to the postgame huddle. Sometimes, I'll stand with the coaches as they circle the kids praying, but it's just us observing.

One coach I've covered this year told his team to do the prayer on their own and he just backed away as they prayed. Two of the players weren't in the huddle because they were grabbing the water jug to toss over their coach as soon as they finished.

Hell, I've just held up my recorder as they prayed, because the captains usually give other thoughts in the huddle and I've used it once or twice.

 

Not to be a shit disturber because ... okay, fine, I'm shit disturbing. Fuck you.

But in the thread about Islamic cars, the jokes were called racist and wrong (I agree) and that you'd never hear such talk about Christianity here.

Except for the multiple sarcastic spellings of Jesus (I dare any of you to write "Moo-ham-head" or "Boo-duh" ). Except for the line about "leaving every insecure and confused kid scared of what some book of old Jewish folklore has to say about them". And "If you don't like it, go cover homeschools. And you're right, we do need more respect. Namely, we need less people like you trying to cram Jesus down the throats of innocent folks like me. I'm glad you're all high on Christ and whatnot, but that tired "the world has gone to hell without prayer in schools" is the worst kind of uneducated, bumper-sticker based, back-of-the-Waffle House cultural argument that you can find today."

If you're not a fan of Christianity, that's fine. I've never "crammed my beliefs" down anyone's throats here, because first and foremost, I don't know where your throats have been. I'm not going to convert anyone on my own, and I'm not going to hard-sell like others I've known. But let's not hold on to the fiction that Christianity gets more respect than other religions on this board.

As for the topic itself, three points:

1. I don't pray along with anyone because I don't like led prayer in general. When I want to talk to God, *I* want to talk to God. I've got things to say to Him. And having someone else talking overwhelms that. That's just me, though.

2. I don't think it's necessary to ban voluntary prayer, even if it's organized (for starters, that wouldn't be Constitutional). But I would hope that if a coach or players were to force a non-believer to pray their way, they'd be disciplined as the law or the schools allow. That does nobody any good.

3. I like it when they pray after a game because it means they're breaking up the huddle at long last. At least where I've been, once they pray, the coach stops yelling at them for sucking.

 

You talk to God?

 

god wouldn't talk to that sumsabitch on a bet.

 

That *is* prayer, right? Communication with God? Not audible discussion, though given the things I talk to out loud (traffic, the Xbox, cats that don't give a shit what I'm saying), it's not that far-fetched either.

 

Without reading the rest of the thread.

I was once asked by the coach to lead a post-game prayer after a basketball game. I did so.

I don't think I did anything wrong.

 

Probably so, but the time, I was the one-man-show at a local weekly.

I knew the coach very well. He trusted me, and I trusted him.

Hopefully we all prayed to the same god.

 

I would have accepted the invitation and said, "Dear lord, please deliver me to a better newspaper where I don't have to cover these lame-ass small school dipshits that no one gives a damn about -- except maybe you."

Or maybe I would have quoted from scriptues:

"Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." (Matthew 6:1-6 RSV)

 

I'd stay far enough away to not be obtrusive and I would not join in. Once they're done, then I'd go in and start doing interviews.

 

I do.

 

Glad you all could enlighten me.