- Oct 17, 2011
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Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Monday defended coach-led prayers on Auburn University’s men’s baseball team and Christian imagery on some new team uniforms.
Marshall sent a letter to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that earlier this month criticized the university for allowing men’s baseball coach Butch Thompson to lead the team in prayer before practices and games and for adopting new uniforms featuring Christian imagery.
Current team practice uniforms feature the phrase “Jesus Won” on the front and a Christian cross on the back.
Former Auburn outfielder Mason Maners also serves as the team’s chaplain, a position Marshall’s office said includes “offering Bible studies and praying with the team.”
“Freedom From Religion’s latest crusade is a swing and a miss. Coaches and athletes don’t lose their religious rights just because they attend a public school,” Marshall said in a written statement released Monday.
[What about an athlete's religious right to not advertise Christianity on a jersey?]
“The Supreme Court has offered several ways to measure state action against the Nation’s historical tradition,” Marshall wrote. “Your vague fear that prayer might ‘marginalize’ the religiously unaffiliated is not one of them.”
[Oh, well okay then.]
“It is important to note that this situation is readily distinguishable from the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District,” FFRF wrote. “In Bremerton, the Court held that a high school football coach’s quiet [sic], private [sic] post-game prayer was constitutional.”
Marshall sent a letter to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that earlier this month criticized the university for allowing men’s baseball coach Butch Thompson to lead the team in prayer before practices and games and for adopting new uniforms featuring Christian imagery.
Current team practice uniforms feature the phrase “Jesus Won” on the front and a Christian cross on the back.
Former Auburn outfielder Mason Maners also serves as the team’s chaplain, a position Marshall’s office said includes “offering Bible studies and praying with the team.”
“Freedom From Religion’s latest crusade is a swing and a miss. Coaches and athletes don’t lose their religious rights just because they attend a public school,” Marshall said in a written statement released Monday.
[What about an athlete's religious right to not advertise Christianity on a jersey?]
“The Supreme Court has offered several ways to measure state action against the Nation’s historical tradition,” Marshall wrote. “Your vague fear that prayer might ‘marginalize’ the religiously unaffiliated is not one of them.”
[Oh, well okay then.]
“It is important to note that this situation is readily distinguishable from the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District,” FFRF wrote. “In Bremerton, the Court held that a high school football coach’s quiet [sic], private [sic] post-game prayer was constitutional.”
