The age-old question of which side is God on has taken a decidedly local turn in these parts. Our independent weekly recently ran a couple of stories about a football coach who forces kids not just to pray before games, but to adopt his Christian evangelical POV. Parents, the stories reported, were afraid to protest to school board and administrative authorities, fearing retribution against their sons in winning college football scholarships. The reaction among the independent weekly readers was that the coach, and his supporters, were all wrong.
But then our local daily, the St. Augustine Record, caught wind of the story, and ran a prayer-friendly version. The reaction among the daily readers — where the story was that all high school football coaches force prayer upon their players and what’s wrong with that? — was that the coach was a hero. Their follow-up story said 74 people wrote in support of the crusading coach and five against.
That’s the background. Here’s a great letter to the editor on the subject in the local daily:
I am against prayer before, after or during a football game.
Players are not praying for welfare of all mankind, for a responsible government, for peace in the demolished land of Iraq. They are praying to win a football game. They should pray that if they are to be hurt, let it be on the football field. They will have some medical coverage.
The Constitution calls for separation of church and state. Whose religion are we talking about? We see plenty of “Jesus” in the arguments for prayer. How about those who want to pray to Adonai or to Allah?
…The Record said it had 74 reactions for school prayer, and five against.
Does that make those five wrong? Does it say something about our city, our community?
My parents came out of World War II convinced there was no God. And if there was a god who let 20 million people die, he is an awful god.
Seeing what is happening today, I do not believe in God either.
If God is there, could He just take time out from sports to fix the rest of the world?
What a helluva letter!
I never could understand all the prayer-before-the-game balony.Every team does it, but all that proves is that god must hate the losers.
There must be a special place in Hell for losing teams.If you don’t want to go to Hell, don’t play sports.
[...] Pensito Review – Friday Night Lights: Illuminating and Proselitizing: “The age-old question of which side is God on has taken a decidedly local turn in these parts. Our independent weekly recently ran a couple of stories about a football coach who forces kids not just to pray before games, but to adopt his Christian evangelical POV. Parents, the stories reported, were afraid to protest to school board and administrative authorities, fearing retribution against their sons in winning college football scholarships. The reaction among the independent weekly readers was that the coach, and his supporters, were all wrong.” [...]