Group calls Georgia Tech chaplain role ‘unconstitutional’

Georgia Tech president G.P. “Bud” Peterson has been asked to address the role of football team chaplain Derrick Moore by a group identifying itself as a watchdog for the separation of church and state. The Freedom From Religion Foundation charged Tech with holding policies that “fail to properly protect your student athletes’ rights of conscience and pose a high degree of risk of discrimination.”

Moore is under contract with the Georgia Tech Athletic Association and has been associated with the team for several years. He is also on staff with Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Among his roles are leading voluntary chapel services and meeting with players individually in a spiritual and personal guidance capacity. He is perhaps most known for pep talks that he has given to the team prior to games. The foundation’s letter to Peterson asserted that “the chaplain’s actions are attributable to the university and those actions are unconstitutional.”

The foundation said that it also sent a letter to Tech players, which included the message that “your school has allowed coaches to have improper and unconstitutional influence over players’ protected and personal decisions related to religion.”