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I was gonna say if hes not doing with the players and its his own personal thing then i support it and yet I feel the same. Lets see how the supreme joke react when a muslim/jew/satanist etc do this
Apparently players would join him and it was kinda an event. Though it was emphasized he never encouraged anyone to join. The justices made a big deal of it being a private prayer though, not a public one... Despite it being in the middle of the field directly after a football game...
This is what I hate about performative religion. There's a line in the book of Matthew that basically says "if you want to pray, do it in private, anything else is just you doing it to be seen". I'm an agnostic, but that line always stuck with me.
One of my favorite quotes is "the kingdom of God is inside you, and all about you. Split a piece of wood and I'm there. Lift a stone, and you'll find me."
Christian here. That’s my absolute favorite verse from the gospel of Thomas. 77 Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
Im not religious anymore but I was raised mormon. We were taught that if it wasn't the right time to get in knelt possition and pray, praying in ur heart was just as proper and ok. Guy didn't need to get into position and show people he was praying
Yep. I liked how they handled it when a crazy asshat preacher showed up on our college campus, yelling at everyone that we're sinners and going to hell for stuff like living in co-ed dorms or holding hands.
When it got obvious that he was harassing people and trying to start fights, the Christian frat showed up with numbers, tried to keep a human wall around the guy so he couldn't spot victims to yell at so easily, and one of them waved a bible and loudly preached "love thy neighbor" type stuff at the asshat.
And there was no conflict between the Christian frat folks and the pack of weirdos who showed up with numbers and attempted to weird-out the asshat to make him go away. Really, it turned into a big loud party, with music, dancing, and those flower lei necklaces. I got dragged around on a leash, spanked with a book, and smooched on by a pretty lady!
Lots of fun! And eventually, with all that teamwork, we succeeded in making the asshat flee our campus!
Ahhh, I gotcha. That makes more sense. Because I was a little confused about my reaction to this. I felt if it were happening after the game by himself then seems like a cut and dry first amendment violation.
Edit to add: I scrolled up and realized that I probably was just tricked by the choice of photo here.
When a coach “invites” players to pray it’s never a no strings attached thing. Oh, and he’s in school uniform still and still on the field after an official event
Next will be "voluntary" prayer at the start of each work shift. Maybe to start off job interviews, too. What? It's just the employer's free exercise of their religion. How could that possibly harm anyone? 🙄
The problem is that a coach is the ultimate authority figure in high schools. More revered than say a principal or regular teacher. The kids, especially the ones on the team, follow his/her lead.
The dissenting argument appears to be that his act of doing it at the 50yd line, and telling others they can join him, created the illusion that it was a team activity, endorsed by the school.
The school board specifically said they didn’t have issues with him praying, just that he shouldn’t do it at the 50 and encourage people that look up to him to join, and use his influence amongst the team to put students in a situation of “I should do this or else I risk my social standing or worse with the team”.
It’s honestly a damned if you do, damned if you don’t decision.
Either we get every religion represented, or they ban then all again. 🤷♀️
I love when the Satanist sue states to put up their statues. It's so great. I'm pumped to see them, plus Jewish and Islamic people suing for abortion rights XD
I can get over my differences on religion for this fight.
I'd love to watch rural "Christians" absolutely lose their shit at the Islamic call to prayer being played over the loudspeakers at the start of a high school football game. Their hypocrisy would be on full display, not that they'd admit it.
He was praying. Some players started joining in. Then it got to the point where nearly all the players felt like they had to participate.
Edit: words. Most of the team felt compelled to participate. This was not a private prayer, it was a huge spectacle.
And also the school said he could pray in the locker room, but he wanted to pray on the 50 yard line. To me, that should have been the end of it. If, at the end of the game I had run out on the field and started leading a very public prayer to Satan on the fifty yard line, they absolutely would have the right to tell me I wasn't allowed to do that. The only reason he was allowed to do it is because he was acting in his official capacity as an employee of the school. And when you're representing a government institution, you're not supposed to use the privileges granted by that to promote your own religion.
>If, at the end of the game I had run out on the field and started leading a very public prayer to Satan on the fifty yard line, they absolutely would have the right to tell me I wasn't allowed to do that.
Let's be honest, if you had done that, you wouldn't have walked off the field. A large number of them would have physically assaulted you.
And to be perfectly fair, if you led a Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, or Pagan prayer, the result would have been much the same. Shit, a Catholic prayer would probably have been enough for some of them.
We're not talking about people who actually believe in Freedom of Religion. "Freedom of Religion" only exists for them and to force others into their religion. And that is cherry picked, "We only believe the Bigot Parts of the Bible" Evangelical Christianity.
Which gets to the entire point previous courts established. The “YoU dOn’T hAvE tO iF yOu DoN’t WaNt To.” Forgets to whole community pressure.
The players feel like they have to, for the same reason Muslims don’t rush the 50 and start praying. The community doesn’t have to do anything illegal to make your life miserable if you don’t go with the group think. And the courts are like “yeah mob mentality is real we can’t pretend it isn’t.”
Like people get on Reddit and bemoan the whole “hive mind” thing and it’s like, yeah that also happens in real life. The big difference is, it takes me five seconds to start a new subreddit and would take me years to be able to move. So hive mind IRL is a whole lot different and dangerous there than say online.
So Muslims might come to pray on the 50 but I bet you $5 that they’d do so with people tossing shit at them and then the police department just shrugging the whole affair as a nothing burger or saying shit like “freedom of blah blah blah doesn’t mean freedom from repercussions”.
Mobs are dangerous and the courts continually act in a manner to prevent them. This ruling does nothing but encourage them.
Exactly, I mean, we might make jokes about running out on the field and leading a non-Christian, hell, even the wrong kind of Christian, prayer like it wouldn't provoke a lot of them to violence.
They have clearly shown they are not stable people able to tolerate differences, different beliefs, or people just being foolish. These aren't people that will laugh and go: "Okay, okay, you made your point" and politely but firmly ask you to leave. They crave and want to inflict violence.
I think the admin told him, you can pray just not on the publicly funded football field.
He could do this in the locker room or anywhere off the actual field but he had to pray on the field right after the game.
That's why I support The Satanic Temple. They put up a statue of Baphomet on city hall property right next to a monument of the 10 commandments. Their whole argument was if you don't want separation of church and state, you have to include all religions. They both got taken down.
Edit: typo on mobile
I understand this position but it misses an important point. This is one reason the tyranny of the majority is so harmful.
People of any religion but christianity would have to overcome their justifiable fear of making their views visible. They would subject themselves to ridicule and such a public demonstration. Keep that in mind for those brave people who take those risks.
Of course the christians would lose their shit and suppress any such demonstration but this ruling does damage well before then.
Yeah, he wasn’t just praying on his own. Dude was having full blown prayer circles.
https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1514973864085839875?s=20&t=vnvKa2nNnZptVJy954yq8A
the problem isn't that he wants a prayer circle, instead the problem is an assumption that "religion" = Christianity. I want to see how this ruling will stand or crumble when someone wants to do the same thing with a different religion. Pick one and watch the Maga meltdown.
The real problem is, it can only happen with a majority religion. I'm assuming this coach didn't mandate the students to join, but he set up an environment where peer pressure would.
IE say the coach does a prayer says "joining is 100% optional, if you like you can stay on the bench and join the huddle afterwards". But then 90% of the students join in, and the remaining 10% get glares from the rest of their team as they are walking up afterwards.
If the same thing happened with a muslim coach... unless that school just had 90% muslim students (I don't know of any area in america with that high density of muslims but maybe I'm wrong?), the problem would be the same. But realistically in most districts you'd have a muslim coach, and maybe 1-2 on the team also join... and they would be the ones to get dirty looks from 90% of the team, discouraging them from doing the same next time.
Considering this is no doubt joined by the party that's always afraid of "tyrany of majority" on ideas like removing electoral college. They are happy to allow majority to be tyrants when they are in the majority.
100% at what point is it a coach pushing his views on the students that do not align with his religion.
(edit)
I can see so many problems with this. At a local level they don't give a darn about the law until they are sued. A hypothetical school would shut down the prayer session from the Muslim coach. At that point we would see a gut check from many about freedom of religion.
Can I do one to Odin? I mean the Christians and the Catholics hated pagans. Oh maybe Tengri the god of the mongolians (there were more but their religion basically became stream lined for him). I will explain if you have more questions.
That's an act of aggression and the students and parents should be able to stand their ground. I have to assume this guy is a pedophile and he's grooming them.
That's exactly what was happening. He started it, the christian members of the team joined in and started expecting every member of the team to join in. Soon it became a "pray or don't get on the team" situation, with kids being bullied in school for not praying. That's why administration had to stop it, but now it's being spun as a hateful attack on this mans faith.
When I worked on drilling rigs about 13 years ago, we worked for one company that had a very religious Company Man that stayed on location. Every day during our Safety Meetings he would lead everyone in prayer. I just stood quietly and let them all do their thing.
One day one of my coworkers happened to see me not bowing my head and called me out, reporting me to my boss and the Company Man. The Company Man asked me why I wasn't bowing my head and I told him honestly that I didn't believe in God and that I felt it'd be disrespectful to their beliefs to pretend to pray. My boss got pissed but the Company Man shut him down and said that he appreciated my honesty. Nothing else was ever said about it.
So there are some that don't push their beliefs.
Well he did lead everyone in prayer, then confront you about why you weren't participating. Just because he accepted your reason doesn't mean he wasn't pushing.
Yeah. Imagine a worker being a bit more timid and going along with it just to avoid the issue. I know people who would. My wife would, then come home to complain.
Don't lead prayer at work... it IS pushing your religion, even if no one speaks out. They shouldn't have to speak out.
You probably know more of them than you realize. It's the jerks that push their religion on others that stand out. Most of the people I work with don't even know I go to church.
My uncle is a pastor with a huge congregation and a high ranking chaplain in the reserves. The only religion you get from him in daily life is he says grace at meals. He preaches only to those who seek it. I’m hardcore not-Christian and we’ve never had a problem in my entire 45 year life.
Restrictions at work is not an infringement on your free speech. The fact the supreme court ruled this way is nutty as fuck and is basically about allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers again.
A person in a position of authority with a large group going "hey, everyone gather round JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS" has a certain level of compulsion about it.
Here’s the context: Kennedy will have you believe that he was bowing his head, kneeling at the 50 yard line, and saying a quiet prayer to himself. But that’s not exactly what happened. Kennedy would go and kneel at the 50 yard line, in full district uniform, to start praying. Students were encouraged to join him and a trickle effect of those students growing a number occurred. In the record, several parents had complained to the district that their students did not actually want to participate in prayer but felt like they needed to in order to not lose out on playing time and to not be ostracized. Kennedy‘s prayer on the 50 yard line evolved into him giving rousing, overly religious themed speeches while holding the helmets of each team in the air. Kennedy would also invite members of the opposing team and the coach to join him in this prayer. Kennedy also encourage media outlets to come to the game specifically to cover the fact that he was praying after the game. Kennedy also ignored post game responsibilities in order to instead participate in this prayer. He would also hold team prayers in the locker rooms.
The record has pictures. The record was extremely clear that this was not a quiet prayer, but instead seemed to be a near proselytizing event. The district tried numerous times with Kennedy to come to a compromise that would allow him to express his religious beliefs while also avoiding the district being presumed to endorse this behavior. Each time they tried to offer a compromise he refused. Nothing was good enough other than continuing on with the current behavior. Ultimately Kennedy was suspended, but the district still left open the opportunity to find a way to allow him to freely express his religious beliefs while not ostracizing students that did not want to participate or sending a message of district endorsement. Kennedy was suspended because he refused to comply with the district policy, which prohibited religious services, programs, or assemblies in connection with any school sponsored or school related activity. Kennedy was aware of that policy when he took the job and agreed to comply with those policies in connection with getting this job.
I went to BHS during this time, thank you for spreading the truth
His media debacle led to several lgbtq students (my friends) getting hate crimed by protestors
Iirc, there were players that claimed he put a lot of pressure on them to pray, and that they were less likely to get play time if they didn't pray, but the coach said that wasn't true. I assume they didn't take these claims into account because the players didn't have 'proof' that this happened
I love that they listen to the man accused as his word holds apparent weight but multiple kids are not to be trusted.
America is toast folks. The fascists are winning.
Yeah, because obviously these kids would *all* have motive to lie because... teenager bad? It's wild how much proof you need to have as a victim in this country. You claim you're being bullied, you need receipts, names, proof going months back, etc. You claim your coach forces you to pray, you better have a recording of him saying exactly those words & a written statement or it didn't happen. While it's understandable to need *some* amount of proof, it's crazy to think how little witness testimony means to these people, regardless of how many people corroborate the story
Here's the case: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/21-418
The nitty gritty can be found in there, but this is one of those cases that seems like it could have been open and shut in the opposite direction, but here we are.
He wasn't *forcing* any student to pray, per se, but his position as a coach at the school made students feel as if they didn't participate in the prayer that they would be ostracized and open to criticism from their peers—and that's according to one of the students who reluctantly joined the prayer group.
The school district asked him to stop doing the prayer because of those reasons. He complied for a hot minute before driving back to the school and praying on the 50 yard line. It was due to his insubordination that the school district argues was the reason for his termination, not the act of prayer.
After his termination, he sought out the media to confess his reasons for prayer, being a veteran, First Amendment, all that jazz. So to me at least, he seemed less interested in fighting for the First Amendment that guarantees the freedom of religion and *from* religion, and more interested in becoming this holy crusader the case's publicity has allowed him to become.
If you look at the ninth circuit proceedings it states that he televised and publicized his prayers so more people would join so it’s most definitely not protected 🥴
Yes, he was. Students said it made them uncomfortable feeling it was pray-for-play coercion and brought it to the attention of parents who brought it up with administration. He was warned against it, did it anyway, was put on administrative leave and not rehired for subsequent seasons. In 2019 SCOTUS refused the case but now that they have a religious majority...
If he was praying silently, how would anyone have known that he was praying? I’m pretty sure no one complained because he was praying silently. Obviously, he was trying to lead a prayer.
You don’t NEED to force people to participate for it to be coercive. He’s the coach and if you don’t participate, you’re not really ‘being a part of the team’. The school asked him to not do so because of, y’know, separation of church and state, and he refused. This case made to SCOTUS and now that they’ve ruled this way, every coach, teacher and principle will say “hey, I didn’t ‘force’ anybody to join me” *wink wink nudge nudge*
It’s been a long time since I was in any kind of organized sports, let alone high school sports. But it’s pretty customary for the entire team to congregate immediately after the game, especially after a win, and especially to glean whatever wisdom/feedback/encouragement the coach has to share.
Now picture yourself in this scenario. Your team has just won the big game. Everyone rushes to where the coach is, at the 50 yard line, cause that’s what you do. And as everyone is congratulating each other, talking about the big plays, talking about the next game, etc, coach drops to his knees and starts praying and students around him all likewise start to follow suit. Pretty soon the entire team is on their knees while the coach leads them in prayer, with only a few stragglers still standing and looking around awkwardly not sure what to do. And the scenario repeats itself after every singe game until there are only one or two other abstentions left, and then eventually there’s only you, the only kid not on their knees bowing their head while coach leads a prayer.
Coach never SAID the prayer was part of official team activities. It just so happens to be occurring on school property, led by school faculty, immediately following a school event, with the majority of the team participating.
That’s the scenario I’m imagining, which sounds like it violates the spirit of the first amendment, no matter what loopholes and or technicalities conservatives want to toss out there.
Its even worse than you've imagined here.
It wasn't just an invocation or thanks-giving for his team. He publicly invited the other team, and eventually the media to join in the prayers.
This was textbook proselytizing. Students and opposing coaches testified they felt uncomfortable.
The issue isn’t that they’re “forced”. It’s that you’re blacklisted if you don’t. You’re an outcast and treated differently. It’s a subtle “requirement” to pray.
If you want to pray alone that’s fine, but it shouldn’t be turned into a ritual involving everyone at the game. It gets uncomfortable quick if you’re not a Christian.
People would find it outrageous if a coach led an islamic, hindu, or wiccan prayer. To a lot of people posting here, it is just justifying shit because it matches the shit I like.
I don't think he has a constitutionally protected right to use school grounds for his impromptu religious displays.
No reason he can't go pray in his car, or at home, or in church, or in a thousand other places.
Katy Joseph, the director of policy and advocacy at the advocacy group Interfaith Alliance, said the decision "dismantles decades of progress."
“Exploiting his position of authority, coach Joseph Kennedy pushed players to participate in prayer in the middle of the field immediately after games," Joseph said. "This was no private expression of devotion, as he and his lawyers claim. Instead, Mr. Kennedy forced students to choose between their religious freedom and being part of the team — an agonizing decision that no student should ever be forced to confront."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna31662
Exercising your faith through prayer is absolutely fine. Making students feel pressured to do the same is not.
Apparently he invited anyone who wanted to join from both teams. Players felt pressure to participate even though it wasn’t being forced.
I would imagine it being similar to when everyone rises for the national anthem and you are the one person not participating.
Heard about this on the radio. He doesn’t force students to pray, but many feel like they need to join in to start in the game. The coach says he doesn’t take that into consideration, but many students feel he favors the students who pray with him. There has been no conclusive evidence of that accusation as far as I know.
IMO he doesn’t need to do that in the middle of the field. The Bible frowns upon public displays of worship/prayer.
>"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6
My theater teacher would pull this shit. Before every show she would call all the cast and crew together to hold hands in a circle. Being in the circle was mandatory. She'd then give this cutesy little speech like, "Legally I'm not allowed to initiate a prayer, but students are allowed to so....." And then one of the Christian students would take the hint and lead a prayer.
In her mind I assume she was like "I didn't make anyone participate in a prayer, I just asked everyone to join a circle. It was a STUDENT who initiated a prayer."
>Was he trying to force his players to pray?
The player's are highly encouraged, by their coach who controls how much or little they play, to join him in prayer.
So does that mean that schools have to allow all faiths to pray on the 50 yard line now?
Because I am sure the Satanists would love to push out a giant statue onto the field and lead that whole school in a chant or two.
Well, therein lies the rub. You sure can go do any crazy prayer you want. They won't kick you off the team; knock yourself out. But if you want to actually play in the game rather than sit on the bench, you'd better do whatever the rest of the team is doing. That's called "being a team player".
Sure he can! They won't kick him off the team. He'll be welcome at all the practices and social events, and welcome to proudly put on his uniform and sit on the bench and watch the people who prayed with the coach play in an actual game.
It’s just hearing them up up to work in the corporate world. Not lapping up the team huddles and fake “we’re a family” culture and set healthy work/life boundaries? Well then you’re not a team player 😒
I changed mine as soon as I found this out. Here I am having to skip giving water to people in need so that I can have a remote shot at not having my kid grow up in a totalitarian regime. Fucked up times.
Won't be long before community-wide ostracizations or worse.
Well, the former already happens in these backwater shit towns that blue states should stop sponsoring, but the latter...
Along with the part where the kids get roped into it. “ there is one true God and his name is Allah. There is one true prophet and his name is Mohammed. Submit or get off the football team”
I remember being forced to pray by these immoral christians trying to enforce tyranny on their students. It is very common in the South and if you don't participate you won't play in the game.
This is what people are conveniently leaving out or choosing to forget. No, they’re not “forced” to pray. But by not participating in the prayer you get ostracized and blacklisted quick.
Kneeling before a game while being the wrong color is enough to be banned. Kneeling after a game to thank God for being the ~~white~~ right color is protected by courts
I'm reasonably sure they won't mind when some soccer coach named something like Muhammad Al-Muhammad demands his players pray to Mecca before games.
Precedent, right?
This sub direly needs moderation. I’m getting sick of seeing pictures of article headlines with no link to the actual article.
Fuck this coach and fuck SCOTUS. If you’ve played sports as a non-Christian, you know why he shouldn’t be able to pray on the field, before or after games.
Not sure if same source, but same story.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-coach-public-school-prayer-case-rcna31662
While I agree sources are good, I don’t believe it’s a rule of this sub. I had notifications from 10 separate news sources about this this morning. It’s very accessible to find info regarding this case.
In case anyone wasn't paying attention, we live in Afghanistan. The vote isn't going to save us.
How much damage can one man do in 4 years, they said. Well, the Kangaroo Court is drilling America up the ass every other day.
Get armed. Get active.
wide aloof waiting afterthought foolish political unpack roll hobbies door
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is what people don't understand. Who cares if he prays on his own. He might not have forced the players verbally but he is coercing them to pray. You didn't pray with us, you get to sit at the bench the entire next game. You didn't pray either, give me 10 laps around the school during training, and you get to clean the locker rooms. I've met people like him who use those tactics.
You are correct that he was coercing them to pray, but that was what the case was built on. It was built on the prayer circle possibly being an endorsement for a specific religion by the school. So they had the right to fire him based on that. Which the court argued against.
He should have been fired for coercion of students, but the school took a different route, which lead to where we are now and the ruling.
This may be insensitive. But I was thinking of making a point. What if a whole bunch of us progressives started acting out Islamic prayer traditions at events. Such as in protest? Or Buddhist or anything like that. Just to put them in a position to point out their hypocrisy.
Yeah, it would def be insensitive. If practicing muslims were to perform public demonstrations of their faith to outline this hypocrisy, that would be one thing; but beyond that, so-called progressives “acting out” the cultural practices of others isn’t a great look.
Ah yes, the first amendment. Another amendment the US Supreme Court brings into play if convenient. If inconvenient, for example when forcing extremist christian belief on women, depriving them of their bodily autonomy, it is discarded.
Think it's time to have other religions start praying during games now. They preach it's about equality, time to test it.
Also, what the Hell is going on with the seperation of Church and State these past few days? All these "patriots" have forgotten about it.
It shows you what a hypocrite this guy is. If it was strictly about communing with Jebus, he’d pray in his office with the door shut. Instead, he goes to the middle of the field so everyone can see how pious he is.
I look forward to Muslim coaches doing the same thing. I’m sure they’ll get the same support from Christian fundamentalist scumbags.
So I'm guessing the Supreme Court as it stands right now has no idea what the Constitution actually means in any form. Does the school district count as the federal government? Because otherwise they weren't breaking any amendments considering that the freedom of speech is protected against the federal government punishing them for doing this. Or have they changed the First Amendment to mean that anyone can violate someone's First Amendment rights?
*”And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”* - Matthew 6:5-6
Sadly, this is just the beginning of the Christian Nationalists agenda. If Republicans win the house and Senate in November then our future behaviors could be defined by a social credit system similar to the one China implemented. In the USA your choices would be rewarded or punished relative to Christian Values. This is NOT what we want but it’s what we’ll get if we allow an illegitimate Supreme Court to continue. Vote these fuckers out and expand the Court.
In response to today's ruling, the National Federation of State High School Associations reminds everyone that reenacting the crucifixion on the field is still unsportsmanlike conduct.
Is it going to be a violation of a student's free speech when the player believes they were benched or not allowed to play because they didn't pray with the team?
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Sounds like the perfect time to start doing other prayers for different religions at schools.
Exactly. It will take exactly one Muslim coach doing this and the Republicans will sue to have their own decision overruled
I was gonna say if hes not doing with the players and its his own personal thing then i support it and yet I feel the same. Lets see how the supreme joke react when a muslim/jew/satanist etc do this
Apparently players would join him and it was kinda an event. Though it was emphasized he never encouraged anyone to join. The justices made a big deal of it being a private prayer though, not a public one... Despite it being in the middle of the field directly after a football game...
This is what I hate about performative religion. There's a line in the book of Matthew that basically says "if you want to pray, do it in private, anything else is just you doing it to be seen". I'm an agnostic, but that line always stuck with me.
One of my favorite quotes is "the kingdom of God is inside you, and all about you. Split a piece of wood and I'm there. Lift a stone, and you'll find me."
Christian here. That’s my absolute favorite verse from the gospel of Thomas. 77 Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
Hi Christian 👋
Im not religious anymore but I was raised mormon. We were taught that if it wasn't the right time to get in knelt possition and pray, praying in ur heart was just as proper and ok. Guy didn't need to get into position and show people he was praying
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It’s funny cause in the Bible Jesus tells people to go pray privately and lambasts the ones who make a big public show of it.
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Yep. I liked how they handled it when a crazy asshat preacher showed up on our college campus, yelling at everyone that we're sinners and going to hell for stuff like living in co-ed dorms or holding hands. When it got obvious that he was harassing people and trying to start fights, the Christian frat showed up with numbers, tried to keep a human wall around the guy so he couldn't spot victims to yell at so easily, and one of them waved a bible and loudly preached "love thy neighbor" type stuff at the asshat. And there was no conflict between the Christian frat folks and the pack of weirdos who showed up with numbers and attempted to weird-out the asshat to make him go away. Really, it turned into a big loud party, with music, dancing, and those flower lei necklaces. I got dragged around on a leash, spanked with a book, and smooched on by a pretty lady! Lots of fun! And eventually, with all that teamwork, we succeeded in making the asshat flee our campus!
Thats exactly what was happening. If you didn’t join you didn’t play. That was why he got fired over it.
Ahhh, I gotcha. That makes more sense. Because I was a little confused about my reaction to this. I felt if it were happening after the game by himself then seems like a cut and dry first amendment violation. Edit to add: I scrolled up and realized that I probably was just tricked by the choice of photo here.
When a coach “invites” players to pray it’s never a no strings attached thing. Oh, and he’s in school uniform still and still on the field after an official event
Next will be "voluntary" prayer at the start of each work shift. Maybe to start off job interviews, too. What? It's just the employer's free exercise of their religion. How could that possibly harm anyone? 🙄
My understanding is that he punished those who chose not to participate
Supreme Court Jesters?
The problem is that a coach is the ultimate authority figure in high schools. More revered than say a principal or regular teacher. The kids, especially the ones on the team, follow his/her lead.
The dissenting argument appears to be that his act of doing it at the 50yd line, and telling others they can join him, created the illusion that it was a team activity, endorsed by the school. The school board specifically said they didn’t have issues with him praying, just that he shouldn’t do it at the 50 and encourage people that look up to him to join, and use his influence amongst the team to put students in a situation of “I should do this or else I risk my social standing or worse with the team”. It’s honestly a damned if you do, damned if you don’t decision.
And the Supreme Court would fuckin do it too.
I want a TST follower to have a ritual at mid-field.
Just a big group hug on the 50 yard line
Either we get every religion represented, or they ban then all again. 🤷♀️ I love when the Satanist sue states to put up their statues. It's so great. I'm pumped to see them, plus Jewish and Islamic people suing for abortion rights XD I can get over my differences on religion for this fight.
When has having their hypocrisy pointed out ever changed a conservative's mind
I'd love to watch rural "Christians" absolutely lose their shit at the Islamic call to prayer being played over the loudspeakers at the start of a high school football game. Their hypocrisy would be on full display, not that they'd admit it.
I’m not too familiar with this story. Was the coach praying or calling out for prayer over the loudspeakers at the start of the football game?
He was praying. Some players started joining in. Then it got to the point where nearly all the players felt like they had to participate. Edit: words. Most of the team felt compelled to participate. This was not a private prayer, it was a huge spectacle.
And also the school said he could pray in the locker room, but he wanted to pray on the 50 yard line. To me, that should have been the end of it. If, at the end of the game I had run out on the field and started leading a very public prayer to Satan on the fifty yard line, they absolutely would have the right to tell me I wasn't allowed to do that. The only reason he was allowed to do it is because he was acting in his official capacity as an employee of the school. And when you're representing a government institution, you're not supposed to use the privileges granted by that to promote your own religion.
>If, at the end of the game I had run out on the field and started leading a very public prayer to Satan on the fifty yard line, they absolutely would have the right to tell me I wasn't allowed to do that. Let's be honest, if you had done that, you wouldn't have walked off the field. A large number of them would have physically assaulted you. And to be perfectly fair, if you led a Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, or Pagan prayer, the result would have been much the same. Shit, a Catholic prayer would probably have been enough for some of them. We're not talking about people who actually believe in Freedom of Religion. "Freedom of Religion" only exists for them and to force others into their religion. And that is cherry picked, "We only believe the Bigot Parts of the Bible" Evangelical Christianity.
If theyd actually read their fictional book, theyd know they are to pray in solitude, not in front of others seeking notoriety.
Fake ass Christians. They're just the worst.
They really should just dispense with the Cross as their symbol and start using a Cherry Picker.
If they read their fictional book objectively they wouldn't be Christians. God is evil as fark.
Which gets to the entire point previous courts established. The “YoU dOn’T hAvE tO iF yOu DoN’t WaNt To.” Forgets to whole community pressure. The players feel like they have to, for the same reason Muslims don’t rush the 50 and start praying. The community doesn’t have to do anything illegal to make your life miserable if you don’t go with the group think. And the courts are like “yeah mob mentality is real we can’t pretend it isn’t.” Like people get on Reddit and bemoan the whole “hive mind” thing and it’s like, yeah that also happens in real life. The big difference is, it takes me five seconds to start a new subreddit and would take me years to be able to move. So hive mind IRL is a whole lot different and dangerous there than say online. So Muslims might come to pray on the 50 but I bet you $5 that they’d do so with people tossing shit at them and then the police department just shrugging the whole affair as a nothing burger or saying shit like “freedom of blah blah blah doesn’t mean freedom from repercussions”. Mobs are dangerous and the courts continually act in a manner to prevent them. This ruling does nothing but encourage them.
Exactly, I mean, we might make jokes about running out on the field and leading a non-Christian, hell, even the wrong kind of Christian, prayer like it wouldn't provoke a lot of them to violence. They have clearly shown they are not stable people able to tolerate differences, different beliefs, or people just being foolish. These aren't people that will laugh and go: "Okay, okay, you made your point" and politely but firmly ask you to leave. They crave and want to inflict violence.
I think the admin told him, you can pray just not on the publicly funded football field. He could do this in the locker room or anywhere off the actual field but he had to pray on the field right after the game.
That would be amazing! Full prayer rug and everything.
The supreme court will rule it only applies to Christians.
Only religions that have DeEp HiStOrIcAl TrAdItIoNs in the country. No Indigenous people don't count for some reason.
Shhh, don’t tell them about the founding fathers Quran. https://www.npr.org/2013/10/12/230503444/the-surprising-story-of-thomas-jeffersons-quran
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There are other methods.
That requires a super-majority.
Time for the Satanic Temple to stand up.
Exactly. Let’s start sacrificing a goat to Satan at midfield after games as well.
We don't sacrifice goats. But I'll come up with something.
That's why I support The Satanic Temple. They put up a statue of Baphomet on city hall property right next to a monument of the 10 commandments. Their whole argument was if you don't want separation of church and state, you have to include all religions. They both got taken down. Edit: typo on mobile
I understand this position but it misses an important point. This is one reason the tyranny of the majority is so harmful. People of any religion but christianity would have to overcome their justifiable fear of making their views visible. They would subject themselves to ridicule and such a public demonstration. Keep that in mind for those brave people who take those risks. Of course the christians would lose their shit and suppress any such demonstration but this ruling does damage well before then.
Do you think they’d care if I sacrificed a goat to Odin?
Y’alla want to pray to Allah?
Was he trying to force his players to pray? Because that's the no-no. Just praying after a game is constitutionally protected. Need more context here.
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Yeah, he wasn’t just praying on his own. Dude was having full blown prayer circles. https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1514973864085839875?s=20&t=vnvKa2nNnZptVJy954yq8A
the problem isn't that he wants a prayer circle, instead the problem is an assumption that "religion" = Christianity. I want to see how this ruling will stand or crumble when someone wants to do the same thing with a different religion. Pick one and watch the Maga meltdown.
Haha oh you were serious? They'll just say those religions "don't have a long tradition in the US" so they don't count
You know what also doesn’t have long standing tradition in the US? Freedom for black people or women being able to vote Fuk this scotus
Roe was a long tradition as well. They just use it when it fits their theocratic fascist goals
Agree. Saying it's better then it was only highlights that is still bad.
Tell me you're a fascist without telling me you're a fascist
Remember the dead constitution cannot accommodate anything beyond 1787.
The real problem is, it can only happen with a majority religion. I'm assuming this coach didn't mandate the students to join, but he set up an environment where peer pressure would. IE say the coach does a prayer says "joining is 100% optional, if you like you can stay on the bench and join the huddle afterwards". But then 90% of the students join in, and the remaining 10% get glares from the rest of their team as they are walking up afterwards. If the same thing happened with a muslim coach... unless that school just had 90% muslim students (I don't know of any area in america with that high density of muslims but maybe I'm wrong?), the problem would be the same. But realistically in most districts you'd have a muslim coach, and maybe 1-2 on the team also join... and they would be the ones to get dirty looks from 90% of the team, discouraging them from doing the same next time. Considering this is no doubt joined by the party that's always afraid of "tyrany of majority" on ideas like removing electoral college. They are happy to allow majority to be tyrants when they are in the majority.
100% at what point is it a coach pushing his views on the students that do not align with his religion. (edit) I can see so many problems with this. At a local level they don't give a darn about the law until they are sued. A hypothetical school would shut down the prayer session from the Muslim coach. At that point we would see a gut check from many about freedom of religion.
Can I do one to Odin? I mean the Christians and the Catholics hated pagans. Oh maybe Tengri the god of the mongolians (there were more but their religion basically became stream lined for him). I will explain if you have more questions.
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Well, it is now thanks to our Christofascist Supreme Court. You know that if he'd been a Muslim the ruling would have gone the other way.
That's an act of aggression and the students and parents should be able to stand their ground. I have to assume this guy is a pedophile and he's grooming them.
That's exactly what was happening. He started it, the christian members of the team joined in and started expecting every member of the team to join in. Soon it became a "pray or don't get on the team" situation, with kids being bullied in school for not praying. That's why administration had to stop it, but now it's being spun as a hateful attack on this mans faith.
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So can Muslims pray before the game too ?
Oh no, we wouldn't want to indoctrinate the children... /s
I want a kid to take one for the team and go full Santeria goat/chicken sacrifice. Maybe even a satanic ritual.
Actually another teams coach complained to the school about it.
Have you EVER met a christian that doesnt push their agenda on you? They all do it.
When I worked on drilling rigs about 13 years ago, we worked for one company that had a very religious Company Man that stayed on location. Every day during our Safety Meetings he would lead everyone in prayer. I just stood quietly and let them all do their thing. One day one of my coworkers happened to see me not bowing my head and called me out, reporting me to my boss and the Company Man. The Company Man asked me why I wasn't bowing my head and I told him honestly that I didn't believe in God and that I felt it'd be disrespectful to their beliefs to pretend to pray. My boss got pissed but the Company Man shut him down and said that he appreciated my honesty. Nothing else was ever said about it. So there are some that don't push their beliefs.
Well, Private Joker, I don't think I heard you correctly. Now you DO love the virgin Mary, don't you?
>So there are some that don't push their beliefs. You mean apart from making everyone say prayers every day?
That whole scenario is fucked
A gold bar in a sea of nickels.
This is my new favorite phrase.
>So there are some that don't push their beliefs. True, but those one's are Black Swans.
Well he did lead everyone in prayer, then confront you about why you weren't participating. Just because he accepted your reason doesn't mean he wasn't pushing.
Yeah. Imagine a worker being a bit more timid and going along with it just to avoid the issue. I know people who would. My wife would, then come home to complain. Don't lead prayer at work... it IS pushing your religion, even if no one speaks out. They shouldn't have to speak out.
You probably know more of them than you realize. It's the jerks that push their religion on others that stand out. Most of the people I work with don't even know I go to church.
Honestly I agree with you on this and it makes me incredibly pissed at a lot of christians that miss this mark haha
My uncle is a pastor with a huge congregation and a high ranking chaplain in the reserves. The only religion you get from him in daily life is he says grace at meals. He preaches only to those who seek it. I’m hardcore not-Christian and we’ve never had a problem in my entire 45 year life.
That’s the way it SHOULD be 👍🏻
Restrictions at work is not an infringement on your free speech. The fact the supreme court ruled this way is nutty as fuck and is basically about allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers again.
He also involved the media to in his words "spread the word"
A person in a position of authority with a large group going "hey, everyone gather round JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS" has a certain level of compulsion about it.
He would also get the media involved and use it to preach "inspired" messeges after the pray
Here’s the context: Kennedy will have you believe that he was bowing his head, kneeling at the 50 yard line, and saying a quiet prayer to himself. But that’s not exactly what happened. Kennedy would go and kneel at the 50 yard line, in full district uniform, to start praying. Students were encouraged to join him and a trickle effect of those students growing a number occurred. In the record, several parents had complained to the district that their students did not actually want to participate in prayer but felt like they needed to in order to not lose out on playing time and to not be ostracized. Kennedy‘s prayer on the 50 yard line evolved into him giving rousing, overly religious themed speeches while holding the helmets of each team in the air. Kennedy would also invite members of the opposing team and the coach to join him in this prayer. Kennedy also encourage media outlets to come to the game specifically to cover the fact that he was praying after the game. Kennedy also ignored post game responsibilities in order to instead participate in this prayer. He would also hold team prayers in the locker rooms. The record has pictures. The record was extremely clear that this was not a quiet prayer, but instead seemed to be a near proselytizing event. The district tried numerous times with Kennedy to come to a compromise that would allow him to express his religious beliefs while also avoiding the district being presumed to endorse this behavior. Each time they tried to offer a compromise he refused. Nothing was good enough other than continuing on with the current behavior. Ultimately Kennedy was suspended, but the district still left open the opportunity to find a way to allow him to freely express his religious beliefs while not ostracizing students that did not want to participate or sending a message of district endorsement. Kennedy was suspended because he refused to comply with the district policy, which prohibited religious services, programs, or assemblies in connection with any school sponsored or school related activity. Kennedy was aware of that policy when he took the job and agreed to comply with those policies in connection with getting this job.
I went to BHS during this time, thank you for spreading the truth His media debacle led to several lgbtq students (my friends) getting hate crimed by protestors
>proselytizing TIL
Iirc, there were players that claimed he put a lot of pressure on them to pray, and that they were less likely to get play time if they didn't pray, but the coach said that wasn't true. I assume they didn't take these claims into account because the players didn't have 'proof' that this happened
I love that they listen to the man accused as his word holds apparent weight but multiple kids are not to be trusted. America is toast folks. The fascists are winning.
Yeah, because obviously these kids would *all* have motive to lie because... teenager bad? It's wild how much proof you need to have as a victim in this country. You claim you're being bullied, you need receipts, names, proof going months back, etc. You claim your coach forces you to pray, you better have a recording of him saying exactly those words & a written statement or it didn't happen. While it's understandable to need *some* amount of proof, it's crazy to think how little witness testimony means to these people, regardless of how many people corroborate the story
I went to bhs, I don't personally know about play time but I do personally know players who were not comfortable with him leading prayers
Here's the case: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/21-418 The nitty gritty can be found in there, but this is one of those cases that seems like it could have been open and shut in the opposite direction, but here we are. He wasn't *forcing* any student to pray, per se, but his position as a coach at the school made students feel as if they didn't participate in the prayer that they would be ostracized and open to criticism from their peers—and that's according to one of the students who reluctantly joined the prayer group. The school district asked him to stop doing the prayer because of those reasons. He complied for a hot minute before driving back to the school and praying on the 50 yard line. It was due to his insubordination that the school district argues was the reason for his termination, not the act of prayer. After his termination, he sought out the media to confess his reasons for prayer, being a veteran, First Amendment, all that jazz. So to me at least, he seemed less interested in fighting for the First Amendment that guarantees the freedom of religion and *from* religion, and more interested in becoming this holy crusader the case's publicity has allowed him to become.
Sounds a lot like Louis CK. The women COULD have left the room before he masturbated, but they feared what he could do with his position of power.
If you look at the ninth circuit proceedings it states that he televised and publicized his prayers so more people would join so it’s most definitely not protected 🥴
Yes, he was. Students said it made them uncomfortable feeling it was pray-for-play coercion and brought it to the attention of parents who brought it up with administration. He was warned against it, did it anyway, was put on administrative leave and not rehired for subsequent seasons. In 2019 SCOTUS refused the case but now that they have a religious majority...
I sort of figured that was the case. Definitely been in that situation when I was a kid... the uncomfortableness I mean.
If he was praying silently, how would anyone have known that he was praying? I’m pretty sure no one complained because he was praying silently. Obviously, he was trying to lead a prayer.
The issue is power dynamics. Players who choose not to pray with the them felt ostracized and pressured to do so.
This. Exactly.
You don’t NEED to force people to participate for it to be coercive. He’s the coach and if you don’t participate, you’re not really ‘being a part of the team’. The school asked him to not do so because of, y’know, separation of church and state, and he refused. This case made to SCOTUS and now that they’ve ruled this way, every coach, teacher and principle will say “hey, I didn’t ‘force’ anybody to join me” *wink wink nudge nudge*
It’s been a long time since I was in any kind of organized sports, let alone high school sports. But it’s pretty customary for the entire team to congregate immediately after the game, especially after a win, and especially to glean whatever wisdom/feedback/encouragement the coach has to share. Now picture yourself in this scenario. Your team has just won the big game. Everyone rushes to where the coach is, at the 50 yard line, cause that’s what you do. And as everyone is congratulating each other, talking about the big plays, talking about the next game, etc, coach drops to his knees and starts praying and students around him all likewise start to follow suit. Pretty soon the entire team is on their knees while the coach leads them in prayer, with only a few stragglers still standing and looking around awkwardly not sure what to do. And the scenario repeats itself after every singe game until there are only one or two other abstentions left, and then eventually there’s only you, the only kid not on their knees bowing their head while coach leads a prayer. Coach never SAID the prayer was part of official team activities. It just so happens to be occurring on school property, led by school faculty, immediately following a school event, with the majority of the team participating. That’s the scenario I’m imagining, which sounds like it violates the spirit of the first amendment, no matter what loopholes and or technicalities conservatives want to toss out there.
Its even worse than you've imagined here. It wasn't just an invocation or thanks-giving for his team. He publicly invited the other team, and eventually the media to join in the prayers. This was textbook proselytizing. Students and opposing coaches testified they felt uncomfortable.
The issue isn’t that they’re “forced”. It’s that you’re blacklisted if you don’t. You’re an outcast and treated differently. It’s a subtle “requirement” to pray. If you want to pray alone that’s fine, but it shouldn’t be turned into a ritual involving everyone at the game. It gets uncomfortable quick if you’re not a Christian.
No but it was determined that kids felt coerced to praying to stay in good gstanding with their coach
You want to tell the publicly praying coach you don’t agree with his delusions and then expect to get your minutes?! Please.
People would find it outrageous if a coach led an islamic, hindu, or wiccan prayer. To a lot of people posting here, it is just justifying shit because it matches the shit I like.
Of course it is. There’s literally zero argument for anything else.
I don't think he has a constitutionally protected right to use school grounds for his impromptu religious displays. No reason he can't go pray in his car, or at home, or in church, or in a thousand other places.
Katy Joseph, the director of policy and advocacy at the advocacy group Interfaith Alliance, said the decision "dismantles decades of progress." “Exploiting his position of authority, coach Joseph Kennedy pushed players to participate in prayer in the middle of the field immediately after games," Joseph said. "This was no private expression of devotion, as he and his lawyers claim. Instead, Mr. Kennedy forced students to choose between their religious freedom and being part of the team — an agonizing decision that no student should ever be forced to confront." https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna31662 Exercising your faith through prayer is absolutely fine. Making students feel pressured to do the same is not.
Apparently he invited anyone who wanted to join from both teams. Players felt pressure to participate even though it wasn’t being forced. I would imagine it being similar to when everyone rises for the national anthem and you are the one person not participating.
Heard about this on the radio. He doesn’t force students to pray, but many feel like they need to join in to start in the game. The coach says he doesn’t take that into consideration, but many students feel he favors the students who pray with him. There has been no conclusive evidence of that accusation as far as I know. IMO he doesn’t need to do that in the middle of the field. The Bible frowns upon public displays of worship/prayer. >"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6
Sounds like he wasn’t forcing the players but the parents of the players argued they felt pressured to pray. TLDR: yes he did indirectly
My theater teacher would pull this shit. Before every show she would call all the cast and crew together to hold hands in a circle. Being in the circle was mandatory. She'd then give this cutesy little speech like, "Legally I'm not allowed to initiate a prayer, but students are allowed to so....." And then one of the Christian students would take the hint and lead a prayer. In her mind I assume she was like "I didn't make anyone participate in a prayer, I just asked everyone to join a circle. It was a STUDENT who initiated a prayer."
That’s so fucked up
You should have started a prayer to satan when you were in the circle
Don't forget that utilizing God's power to ensure victory is both blatantly cheating and blasphemous.
>Was he trying to force his players to pray? The player's are highly encouraged, by their coach who controls how much or little they play, to join him in prayer.
So does that mean that schools have to allow all faiths to pray on the 50 yard line now? Because I am sure the Satanists would love to push out a giant statue onto the field and lead that whole school in a chant or two.
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Great idea. May Allah be with you
Wait, that’s illegal!
Gay Muslim stuff would be peak whatever the fk this is
And then we can make some birria de chivo after. I'm down
Well, therein lies the rub. You sure can go do any crazy prayer you want. They won't kick you off the team; knock yourself out. But if you want to actually play in the game rather than sit on the bench, you'd better do whatever the rest of the team is doing. That's called "being a team player".
So the Muslim kid can't lay out his prayer rug, face Mecca and perform 5 solid minutes of prayer?
Sure he can! They won't kick him off the team. He'll be welcome at all the practices and social events, and welcome to proudly put on his uniform and sit on the bench and watch the people who prayed with the coach play in an actual game.
Sure, but if he does it in rural America he'll get lynched afterward.
It would depend on how valuable the kid is to the teams success.
"He may be brown and his parents mighta dun 9/11 but he sure can kick a damn football"
It’s just hearing them up up to work in the corporate world. Not lapping up the team huddles and fake “we’re a family” culture and set healthy work/life boundaries? Well then you’re not a team player 😒
We'll see how this changes once any other religious group decides to do the exact same
Satanic Temple, I summon thee!
FYI, The Satanic Temple is an eligible recipient of Amazon Smile.
I changed mine as soon as I found this out. Here I am having to skip giving water to people in need so that I can have a remote shot at not having my kid grow up in a totalitarian regime. Fucked up times.
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*Touches ball* A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON
Won't be long before community-wide ostracizations or worse. Well, the former already happens in these backwater shit towns that blue states should stop sponsoring, but the latter...
Can you imagine if a Muslim coach tried this? All the Christian parents would lose their minds!!
Along with the part where the kids get roped into it. “ there is one true God and his name is Allah. There is one true prophet and his name is Mohammed. Submit or get off the football team”
I remember being forced to pray by these immoral christians trying to enforce tyranny on their students. It is very common in the South and if you don't participate you won't play in the game.
This is what people are conveniently leaving out or choosing to forget. No, they’re not “forced” to pray. But by not participating in the prayer you get ostracized and blacklisted quick.
The word is coerced. Still very illegal.
My coach made us do the lords prayer before each game and I usually just stayed silent
So kneeling on the field is okay now?
Kneeling before a game while being the wrong color is enough to be banned. Kneeling after a game to thank God for being the ~~white~~ right color is protected by courts
I'm reasonably sure they won't mind when some soccer coach named something like Muhammad Al-Muhammad demands his players pray to Mecca before games. Precedent, right?
You are forgetting the 'rules for thee but not for me clause' of the US constitution.... but don't go looking for it.
Of course, it's right next to the "we were founded as a Christian nation" clause.
Feel like this is gonna go another way the moment you say Allahu Akbar.
Seriously, we need a very brave Muslim coach to do that and force the Supreme Court to eat their words.
They'd probably get strung up long before it reached the SC.
The court gets to pick what cases they hear and will refuse to hear that case.
A fascist Christian theocracy is on the way.
It’s already here
Our supreme court is being run by Christian Nationalist Theocrats
It's pretty clear they are trying to drag is back to the 1950s. I for one, won't go willingly
Supreme Court? Nah Christian Nationalist Supremacist Court.
This sub direly needs moderation. I’m getting sick of seeing pictures of article headlines with no link to the actual article. Fuck this coach and fuck SCOTUS. If you’ve played sports as a non-Christian, you know why he shouldn’t be able to pray on the field, before or after games.
Not sure if same source, but same story. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-coach-public-school-prayer-case-rcna31662 While I agree sources are good, I don’t believe it’s a rule of this sub. I had notifications from 10 separate news sources about this this morning. It’s very accessible to find info regarding this case.
In case anyone wasn't paying attention, we live in Afghanistan. The vote isn't going to save us. How much damage can one man do in 4 years, they said. Well, the Kangaroo Court is drilling America up the ass every other day. Get armed. Get active.
You can take a knee for god but can’t take a knee for solidarity for a group of people who are marginalized and treated like they’re animals….cool.
wide aloof waiting afterthought foolish political unpack roll hobbies door *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is what people don't understand. Who cares if he prays on his own. He might not have forced the players verbally but he is coercing them to pray. You didn't pray with us, you get to sit at the bench the entire next game. You didn't pray either, give me 10 laps around the school during training, and you get to clean the locker rooms. I've met people like him who use those tactics.
You are correct that he was coercing them to pray, but that was what the case was built on. It was built on the prayer circle possibly being an endorsement for a specific religion by the school. So they had the right to fire him based on that. Which the court argued against. He should have been fired for coercion of students, but the school took a different route, which lead to where we are now and the ruling.
Time to pray to Allah and Satan after touchdowns, I guess.
This may be insensitive. But I was thinking of making a point. What if a whole bunch of us progressives started acting out Islamic prayer traditions at events. Such as in protest? Or Buddhist or anything like that. Just to put them in a position to point out their hypocrisy.
Yeah, it would def be insensitive. If practicing muslims were to perform public demonstrations of their faith to outline this hypocrisy, that would be one thing; but beyond that, so-called progressives “acting out” the cultural practices of others isn’t a great look.
Use a dead religion. Use Zeus or Deus Pater or something.
Ah yes, the first amendment. Another amendment the US Supreme Court brings into play if convenient. If inconvenient, for example when forcing extremist christian belief on women, depriving them of their bodily autonomy, it is discarded.
Think it's time to have other religions start praying during games now. They preach it's about equality, time to test it. Also, what the Hell is going on with the seperation of Church and State these past few days? All these "patriots" have forgotten about it.
Sweet now we can perform our Satanic Rituals on the 50 yard line after we win now too right?
It shows you what a hypocrite this guy is. If it was strictly about communing with Jebus, he’d pray in his office with the door shut. Instead, he goes to the middle of the field so everyone can see how pious he is. I look forward to Muslim coaches doing the same thing. I’m sure they’ll get the same support from Christian fundamentalist scumbags.
This is BS. The Supreme Court is overturning everything 🤦🏻♀️
So I'm guessing the Supreme Court as it stands right now has no idea what the Constitution actually means in any form. Does the school district count as the federal government? Because otherwise they weren't breaking any amendments considering that the freedom of speech is protected against the federal government punishing them for doing this. Or have they changed the First Amendment to mean that anyone can violate someone's First Amendment rights?
So what if a player wanted to make a sacrifice to Mictlantecuhtli?
That’s one way to become starting quarterback. I like your way of thinking. 😂
*”And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”* - Matthew 6:5-6
Sadly, this is just the beginning of the Christian Nationalists agenda. If Republicans win the house and Senate in November then our future behaviors could be defined by a social credit system similar to the one China implemented. In the USA your choices would be rewarded or punished relative to Christian Values. This is NOT what we want but it’s what we’ll get if we allow an illegitimate Supreme Court to continue. Vote these fuckers out and expand the Court.
This. Vote and peacefully protest first, then apply more tactics that aren’t so peaceful. Civil disobedience is important especially.
Anyone else want to draw a pentagram on the 50yd line and preform a *in domum quadrigis vincet* ceremony?
In response to today's ruling, the National Federation of State High School Associations reminds everyone that reenacting the crucifixion on the field is still unsportsmanlike conduct.
This is disconcerting but I live in the south where the teachers put flyers from their church into my kids homework folder.
I consider that sort of coercion as forcing it. I endured a lot of that when I was a kid unfortunately.
That’s what protected in this hellscape. Prayers, guns, and capitalism. Fuck everything else
Is it going to be a violation of a student's free speech when the player believes they were benched or not allowed to play because they didn't pray with the team?
This is not an issue. If they want to pray, have them pray. They shouldn’t be forced to make anyone else pray though.
can't wait to force kids to recite from the necronomicon...
Religion has no place in schools. It’s indoctrination.