Prayers at football games in public high school?

I am Christian but I see as harmful the "Christian" zealots that want to shove Christianity down everyone's throats, and disregard the Constitutional guarantee (1st Amendment, the one right before the 2A) of religious freedom, who are doing more much more harm than good, to the image of Christianity in general, and the missionary work of Christ.
 

I spent my days as a Professor of Religious Studies at a local University. Christianity and other religions are one's personal belief systems in a God or Gods. In my personal opinion where the problem starts with religion is when people attempt to pass on their own beliefs to others who are not inquiring about it.

There are tons of Church services or Bible Studies or whatever meetings for people to inquire and ask questions about all the types of religions out there. In my personal opinion there should be no need for people going door to door or any of that public display. Even in those remote countries and areas where supplies are given and missionaries are set up to teach those who want to learn. It should however never be forced onto anyone. That takes away from the personal part and in many ways it being an authentic relationship.
 
Questions presented:

Issues: (1) Whether a public-school employee who says a brief, quiet prayer by himself while at school and visible to students is engaged in government speech that lacks any First Amendment protection; and (2) whether, assuming that such religious expression is private and protected by the free speech and free exercise clauses, the establishment clause nevertheless compels public schools to prohibit it.
 

A high school coach is allowed to kneel and pray at a football game, so....

A teacher who is of the Islamic faith can kneel on his/her prayer rug and pray to Allah on the field??

A teacher who is of the Jewish faith can ask there be no references in the coach's prayers to Jesus since that conflicts with their faith?

If players join the Islamic teacher or Jewish teacher in their prayers, will there be someone appointed breaking with the coach's religious gesture playing time will not be affected???

Evangelicals still suggest the Nation has gone to Hell in a handbasket because prayer has been removed from schools. It hasn't! Any one can pray privately to their God in concert with their religious beliefs. If the evangelical Christians want public prayer in school, are they okay with Christian prayer on Mondays, Islamic prayers on Tuesday, Jewish prayers on Wednesday, etc., etc., etc.???

IMHO, the only error in judgement by the coach was "performing" his prayer in the middle of the field... in a public place... encouraging being joined by students and players.
 
Lara said:
Our country was founded on Christian principles
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Maybe, but I believe only in a cultural way, not really religious. From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faiths_of_the_Founding_Fathers :

...U.S. Founding Fathers fell into three religious categories:
  1. the smallest group, founders who had left their Judeo-Christian heritages and become adherents of the Enlightenment intellectual movement "Deism". These figures included Thomas Paine and Ethan Allen.
  2. the founders who remained practicing Christians. They retained a supernaturalist world view, a belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and an adherence to the teachings of their denomination. These founders included Patrick Henry, John Jay, and Samuel Adams. Holmes also finds that most of the wives and daughters of the founders fell into this category.
  3. the largest group consisted of founders who retained Christian loyalties and practice but were influenced by Deism. They believed in little or none of the miracles and supernaturalism inherent in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Holmes finds a spectrum of such Deistic Christians among the founders, ranging from John Adams and George Washington on the conservative right to Benjamin Franklin and James Monroe on the skeptical left.

I believe that the idea we were founded as a "Christian" nation is mostly myth, in a religious sense anyway.

For example Christmas was not a federal holiday or even widely celebrated in the US until the mid to late 1800s, about 100 years after the founding of the country. What we now think of as Christmas traditions are relatively new. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/christmas-19th-century-america
 
ohioboy said:
Questions presented:

Issues: (1) Whether a public-school employee who says a brief, quiet prayer by himself while at school and visible to students is engaged in government speech that lacks any First Amendment protection; and (2) whether, assuming that such religious expression is private and protected by the free speech and free exercise clauses, the establishment clause nevertheless compels public schools to prohibit it.
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Good question, I know little of the law, but my opinion is that so long as it was a "quiet prayer by himself" I think it would be fine. Even if he was visible to some students.
 
Lara said:
We're more of a melting pot now than ever before. It's impossible now to please everyone all of the time.
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I think that since colonization we always have been. For example the first person to die in the American Revolution, Crispus Attucks, was mixed race, African, Native American and probably European https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispus_Attucks some even believe he was a Muslim. We have long been a melting pot, though the ingredients have changed a little.
 
We're in deep sh!t when prayer is outlawed. Tout any other extreme view and it's acceptable. Be very concerned when righteousness is considered evil and evil is considered righteous.
 
Gardenlover said:
We're in deep sh!t when prayer is outlawed. Tout any other extreme view and it's acceptable. Be very concerned when righteousness is considered evil and evil is considered righteous.
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Outlaw prayer, impossible. People can pray whenever and wherever they please. I can be praying on a park bench where the park is extremely crowded and not a single person in the park knows I am praying because I choose to make my prayer a personal thing between me and God. Anyone can do this at any time or anywhere.
 
Dapper Dan said:
Outlaw prayer, impossible. People can pray whenever and wherever they please. I can be praying on a park bench where the park is extremely crowded and not a single person in the park knows I am praying because I choose to make my prayer a personal thing between me and God. Anyone can do this at any time or anywhere.
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Just don't do it in manner that shows you're praying - why does prayer have to be hidden, which equates to it being wrong?
 
Pepper said:
Who are those doing the judging?
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Pepper, Pepper - I knew it wouldn't take long for you to reply - I enjoy our discussions.

Why does anyone have to be the judge? I pray you, you do not. Yet many condemn those who dare pray in public. Live and let live - what are we afraid of?
 
Dapper Dan said:
Outlaw prayer, impossible. People can pray whenever and wherever they please. I can be praying on a park bench where the park is extremely crowded and not a single person in the park knows I am praying because I choose to make my prayer a personal thing between me and God. Anyone can do this at any time or anywhere.
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You saved me the trouble. Also I have no objection to anyone quietly observing their religious customs in public as long as it is not being done in such a way that makes it political or provocative.

I once observed a Muslim man working on the internet cables in the street outside my house. At midday he unrolled his prayer mat and performed his prayer ritual without fuss. When he had finished I offered him future privacy in our enclosed garden where he could wash and pray in private but he said he was OK. Clearly he was used to this situation and he was just fulfilling his obligation without fanfare.

I'm not sure I would put the football coach in the same category as the telecom worker.
 
Gardenlover said:
Just don't do it in manner that shows you're praying - why does prayer have to be hidden, which equates to it being wrong?
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Prayer is not being hidden because it is between you and God. You don't have to be on your knees with your hands folded and eyes closed to get your prayer to God. There is nothing wrong with hidden prayer at all as long as you are sincere in your prayers that is all that matters.
 
Warrigal said:
You saved me the trouble. Also I have no objection to anyone quietly observing their religious customs in public as long as it is not being done in such a way that makes it political or provocative.

I once observed a Muslim man working on the internet cables in the street outside my house. At midday he unrolled his prayer mat and performed his prayer ritual without fuss. When he had finished I offered him future privacy in our enclosed garden where he could wash and pray in private but he said he was OK. Clearly he was used to this situation and he was just fulfilling his obligation without fanfare.

I'm not sure I would put the football coach in the same category as the telecom worker.
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I truly feel anyone can reach their God or Gods through private means of prayer without anyone else noticing they are doing so. If another chooses to ask about another's religion, then yes I believe that can be the time for someone to discuss their religion with another, but not in a pushy manner.
 
Gardenlover said:
Just don't do it in manner that shows you're praying - why does prayer have to be hidden, which equates to it being wrong?
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That equation of hidden = wrong is not a proper context. Many jurisdictions have enacted school laws for a "Minute of Silence" to start a classroom day.
 
Gardenlover said:
We're in deep sh!t when prayer is outlawed. Tout any other extreme view and it's acceptable. Be very concerned when righteousness is considered evil and evil is considered righteous.
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Sorry, but the opposite of Christianity (your definition of righteousness) is not evil. I, and many of the other members of this forum, may not be Christians but we are not evil. And what are the other "extreme views" you are referring to? Please do explain.

And does your religion allow you to say sh!t? :ROFLMAO: I would have never been allowed to say that word when I grew up in the Baptist church.
 
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Gardenlover said:
So there is no evil in the world, according to who? Don't be so draft. Everything is just fine and dandy in the Ukraine, let's keep our eyes closed.
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Here's the point of my concern re: good v. evil: We have today a situation in the United States where we are split almost in 2 equal halves; each thinks the other evil. Evil. That's what the polls say: evil. We can't all be right; we can't all be wrong. Who gets to decide? We can't seem to get along and compromise, so which is the evil version we condemn; which is the good we praise?

I agree with you, my forum brother, on Ukraine. Putin doesn't.
 

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