The debate continues over the Christian-themed monument at the Madison County High School field house. At last week’s home game, football players continued their new and controversial tradition of touching the rock-like monument before the game.
Credit: Maureen Downey
Credit: Maureen Downey
Inscribed on the donated monument are Bible verses: Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” and Romans 8:31 “If God be for us who can be against us?”
The overt Christian references sparked legal warning letters from two watchdog organizations.
The community appears to want the school systems to defend the monument, although it's a court case Madison County Schools would likely lose based on the clear and multiple rulings on this issue.
As the Madison County Journal reported after Friday's winning performance by the high school football team:
The Madison County school system has been asked by two secular organizations to take down the new monument because of Bible verses engraved on the structure. Quarterback Ethan South summed up the day of controversy following the win. "Coach (Chris) Smith talked about it before the game and said there's really nothing we can do about it right now," South said. "We just came out and played our type of football and no matter what happens we give God glory. Statue or not, he's still God."
Mike Buffington, the co-publisher of the Madison County Journal, sent me a thoughtful piece he wrote in response to the intertwining of football and religion in the South.
He wrote about a Hall County high school in which coaches were leading and participating in prayers with students and using Bible references in workout sheets and banners.
Those actions garnered Hall County a letter of protest from the American Humanist Association in which the association said the "school district’s policy and practice of permitting coaches to participate in prayer with students is longstanding, pervasive and ongoing.” And wrong.
“School districts must uphold the separation of church and state to guarantee that the rights of all students, particularly of students of minority religions or no religion, are respected,” said David Niose, legal director of the Appignani Humanist Legal Center.
In a few short weeks, a similar controversy erupted n Buffington’s own backyard over the monument and provoked the same letter of warning from groups committed to upholding the separation of church and state.
Here is an excerpt of Buffington's piece about Hall County and here is a link to the full text on the Journal website.
The question is, where is that line? At what point are the actions of students considered voluntary and at what point are they being led directly by a teacher or a coach?
This is quicksand for public school employees. Teachers and coaches are in positions of influence over impressionable young teens and the messages they convey have to be carefully construed. They should not abuse the power they have over kids to push personal agendas, religious or otherwise.
For coaches or teachers to use their position in a public school to openly proselytize for any particular religion or political agenda would be wrong. We don't want a Christian coach telling a Muslim kid he's going to hell any more than we would want a Muslim coach telling a Christian kid Allah hates him. Public schools are not the forum for such discussions and those employed by public schools shouldn't venture into those kinds of things no matter how strong their personal beliefs may be. (Ditto for political proselytizing.)
On the other hand, we don't want to crucify a coach who might obliquely use a biblical reference to make a point about teamwork or sacrifice when giving his team a needed butt-chewing. Some of these things aren't black-and-white.
Anyway, from what I've seen having grown up in the South, football here is larger than any traditional religious faith. High school and college football is for many people here a religion unto itself, a faith that has its own attire, chants, prayers, traditions, icons and convictions.
In the South, we'd rather be in a football stadium on a Friday or Saturday to worship our teams than in a church on a Sunday.
Even atheists here believe in the religion of football.
At least that's some common ground.
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