Clemson University, in a five-sentence letter sent April 24 by its legal counsel, claims that the Freedom From Religion Foundation's complaint about religion in the football program included incorrect legal statements and “misconstrued important facts.”

FFRF sent a detailed complaint April 10 to the public university in Clemson, S.C., regarding promotion of Christianity by coaches within the football program. FFRF’s complaint was based on extensive records obtained from the university, which outlined numerous instances of coach endorsement of religion.

The university’s response letter failed to address any specific factual or legal claims. However, the letter concluded by saying that FFRF’s claims would be included in an overall review of Clemson’s programs.

"It is not surprising that the university’s legal counsel is defending its practices,” said Patrick Elliott, FFRF staff attorney.

Elliott added, "At this point, the university has failed to address any legal or factual issues. FFRF responded immediately to the letter by asking for more information and has not yet received a reply. We believe Clemson University must conduct a bona fide review of the football program and make necessary changes. As it stands, we have no confidence that the university has ended endorsement of Christianity to student athletes by coaches.”

The attorney for Owasso Public Schools, Owasso, Okla., told the Freedom From Religion Foundation today (May 1) that no district employee will be allowed in the future to pray or otherwise engage in religious activities with students.

FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a letter of complaint April 28 to Superintendent Clark Ogilvie on behalf of a local citizen, who alleged that Owasso High School baseball coach Larry Turner and assistant coaches were leading the team in pregame prayer.

Seidel cited specific cases in which federal courts have struck down prayer in public schools, including pregame prayer, because it constitutes government endorsement of religion, a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. "More notably, federal courts have specifically held public school coaches’ participation in their team’s prayer circles unconstitutional," Seidel wrote.

"Owasso Public Schools must take immediate action to ensure that coaches do not lead, organize, encourage, or participate in prayers with their teams. The coaches apparent organizing and obvious participation in a team prayer constitutes an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion."

School Attorney J. Douglas Mann responded May 1 by letter: "This is to advise you that I have been directed by Superintendent Ogilvie to advise you that the Owasso School District will not allow any District employees to participate with any District students in any prayer or other religious activities in connection with any school-sponsored events."

Superintendent Ogilvie also responded promptly and positively to a 2011 FFRF complaint about a school bus driver displaying a Christian cross in the bus. The school told FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott three days after getting the complaint that the cross wouldn't be displayed again.

The Bulloch County Courthouse, Statesboro, Ga.

Every year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation handles multiple complaints about local government officials inserting themselves into National Day of Prayer events, not as private citizens but in their roles as public employees or appointees.

FFRF, a national state-church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., so far this year has sent letters of complaint to Bulloch County (Statesboro, Ga.); the cities of Mandeville, La.; Guin and Summerdale, Ala.; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Polk County Public Schools, Bartow, Fla. (event at Lake Wales Senior High); and the cities of Odessa, Texas, and Barron, Wis.

Complaints about Nampa, Idaho, Jeffersonville, Ind., and possibly other locales are pending.

"There are other complaints about NDP events that we've declined where it doesn't appear that the city/town is directly endorsing the event," said Staff Attorney Sam Grover. "Even if an NDP event takes place on public property, it may be legal if it's hosted by a private group that went through the proper procedures to rent and use that public space."

Grover wrote Mandeville Mayor Donald Villere on April 29 about the rally on the front steps of City Hall, which was prominently displayed on the city’s website under the section titled “Mayor’s Message.”

An April 16 letter from Grover went to Odessa Mayor David Turner and City Manager Richard Morition about the May 1 Mayor's Prayer Luncheon held annually in conjunction with the NDP. A city press release said tickets for could be bought through the city secretary and listed her phone number at City Hall.

FFRF contacted the previous mayor in 2012 about spending several thousand dollars of tax money on the luncheon and using city staff to coordinate it.

Guin promoted its event on the city's website and Facebook page.

FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote April 30 to Bulloch County Attorney Jeff Atkins, and included a photo of a sign on the courthouse lawn. "It appears that the county is hosting the event since there is no indication of a private sponsor."

FFRF also filed an open records request for county policies on advertising and putting up displays on government property.

This year's National Day of Prayer theme is “One Voice, United in Prayer.” The featured bible verse is Romans 15:6: "So that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Federal law says, "The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals."

Secularists and even some Christians have long noted that the day "has been taken over by evangelicals," as one man put it. The NDP Task Force, based in Colorado Springs, is top-heavy with social conservatives, many of whom are homophobic and anti-choice.

In the U.S. Capitol today, the task force held an observance in the Cannon House Office Building at 9 a.m. It was hosted by Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala. Two rabbis, both from Messianic Jewish groups, were listed as participants.

The 25th annual bible reading marathon started Sunday on the Capitol steps and was set to be completed today.

The Colorado Supreme Court will hear oral argument May 1 in Gov. John Hickenlooper’s appeal of a unanimous state Court of Appeals decision ruling in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation against a “Colorado Day of Prayer.”

The Court of Appeals ruled in 2012 that gubernatorial proclamations designating a “Colorado Day of Prayer” each year violate the state Constitution. Coincidentally, the case is being argued on the first Thursday in May, which is proclaimed as a “Colorado Day of Prayer” by the governor and a “National Day of Prayer” by Congress.

In the lead appellate opinion, Judge Steve Bernard wrote, “[T]he six Colorado Day of Prayer proclamations [2004-09] at issue here are governmental conduct that violate the Preference Clause [of the Religious Freedom section of Colorado’s Constitution].” The content is “predominantly religious; they lack a secular context; and their effect is government endorsement of religion as preferred over nonreligion.”

The proclamations “have the primary or principal effect of endorsing religious beliefs because they convey or attempt to convey a message that religion or a particular religious belief is favored or preferred.” The appellate decision noted that the “inclusion of biblical verses and religious themes,” statements urging “that individuals will unite in prayer” and the governor’s signature, imprimatur and seal make “no doubt here that the religious message is attributed to the Governor.” In May 2013, the Colorado Supreme Court granted the state’s petition for review. The court will decide whether to uphold the appellate decision, which ruled that FFRF and four of its members had standing and that the state Constitution disallows the governor's prayer exhortations. FFRF’s litigation attorney, Richard Bolton, will argue the case.

“We want to see reason prevail and constitutional rights of citizens affirmed by the court,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of FFRF, a Madison, Wis.–based state-church watchdog with more than 20,000 members nationwide and about 600 in Colorado.

Oral argument is being held in the La Junta Junior/Senior High School in La Junta as part of an education outreach program by Colorado courts.

“Freedom From Religion in the bible belt” is the theme of FFRF’s May 2-3 conference in downtown Raleigh, N.C., at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel, 421 South Salisbury St. In conjunction with the Triangle Freethought Society, FFRF’s active Raleigh-area chapter, the gathering will “win hearts and minds for reason and secularism.”

Speakers include:

• Agnostic bible scholar Bart Ehrman, author of “Did Jesus Exist”?, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who will talk on “Writing about Religion: Some Agnostic Reflections” and receive FFRF’s Emperor Has No Clothes Award, a bronze statuette reserved for public figures who make known their dissent from religion.

• Founder of Atheist Ireland Michael Nugent, flying in from Dublin, who will speak on the timely topic: “You Have Rights, Your Beliefs Do Not.”

• Freethought activist Todd Stiefel (the man behind the Reason Rally) and head of Stiefel Freethought Foundation.

• Recovery from Religion Executive Director Sarah Morehead, who will unveil a new program from Recovery From Religion.

• Black Nonbelievers President Mandisa Thomas speaking on “Black Nonbelivers: Past, Present & Future.”

• Stuart Watson, NBC investigative TV reporter exposing megachurch abuses, who will receive a “Freethought in the Media” Award.

• FFRF Co-President Dan Barker will emcee a panel of local former ministers including Randy Bender, Candace Gorham, and Matt Killingsworth). FFRF Co-President and co-founder Annie Laurie Gaylor will greet and help emcee, along with Triangle Freethought Society President Harry Shaughnessy and Board Member Sue Kocher.

Southern freethinking student activists include:

• Sophia Winkler (star of Scott Burdick’s film, “Sophia Goes to the Good News Club” which will air, followed by a student activist award presentation and remarks by the filmmaker)

• High school activists Ben and Kalei Wilson

• FFRF student plaintiff Max Nielson challenging graduation and school board prayers Students will all receive $1,000 student activist awards from FFRF.

Entertainment will include a Friday night complimentary dessert reception, The Village Idiots, a meet and greet, a Saturday morning non-prayer breakfast, drawing for “clean” (pre-“In God We Trust” godless) currency, and a few songs by “Singing Atheist” Dan Barker.

CNN is scheduled to cover some of the event for an upcoming documentary on atheism.

The conference opens with complimentary hearty appetizers for registrants and early registration at 4:30 at the Sheraton. The formal conference begins Friday at 7 p.m. and concludes Saturday night, May 3.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation and its Metropolitan Chicago Chapter condemn the vandalism of the Divine Mercy display in Chicago. The display in Daley Plaza was damaged April 23 when a vandal or vandals punctured a painting of Jesus and broke the glass covering an explanatory sign.

"For many years, FFRF has been on the receiving end of vandalism when we have gotten a permit to place secular displays to counter religious messages on government property, and we know how it feels,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “FFRF has never resorted to criminal acts to express its views, but has gone to great trouble and expense through the proper channels to be sure our views were also represented. We condemn suppression of speech by criminal act as cowardly.”

Tom Cara, chapter director, said, "We empathize with all others who are on the receiving end of vandalism. Our display was also defaced in a nondestructive manner a few days earlier. Additionally, the FFRF office received a phone call last Friday from someone issuing a threat that our display would be torn down.”

Cara added, “As we seek to promote rationalism, we certainly do not consider such acts to be rational and strongly decry this. Yet they underscore our belief that religion is divisive, and that religious displays do not belong on public property.”

FFRF supports the prosecution of the criminals who damaged the Divine Mercy display.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is strongly criticizing Hobby Lobby’s public school bible course recently approved by Mustang Public Schools in Mustang, Okla.

National state-church watchdog FFRF has been eyeing the bible course since November, when Hobby Lobby’s billionaire owner Steve Green personally pitched it to the school board. On April 23, FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel had a chance to look over the proposed textbook.

“I am amazed that any school district would think this is appropriate for public schools,” said Seidel, adding that his amazement isn’t accompanied by surprise. “This just confirms the suspicions we had about the class last year. Clearly, Hobby Lobby and the Greens are trying to convert children to their particular brand of Christianity. There is nothing scholarly, fair or balanced about the curriculum.”

In its April 24 letter to the school district, FFRF noted that the “the draft materials MPS intends to use unequivocally fail to meet the legal standards required by our Constitution. The materials show a clear Christian bias, treat the bible as historically accurate and true in all respects and make theological claims.”

FFRF intends to further review the materials this summer because “these criticisms are not exhaustive and were revealed after a brief glance.” Seidel hopes to enroll experts to critique the class more thoroughly.

Seidel noted numerous alarming inaccuracies, including:

• Perhaps the best example of the Christian bias of the book is the question it asks and answers: “What is God like?” It goes on to list only positive attributes (“Faithful and good,” “gracious and compassionate,” "orderly and disciplined,” “full of love”) or theologically Christian attributes (“always was, always will be,” “ever-present help in times of trouble,” “righteous judge”). God’s negative aspects go unmentioned. For instance, according to the same bible in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:5), it says, “I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” Not only does God admit jealousy, he promises to punish innocent children for the crimes of their parents in the Ten Commandments. Any fair, balanced listing of God’s attributes must include those which he allegedly gives himself.
• The textbook criticizes the “historical half-truths” of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, a work of fiction, but fails to apply that same critical lens to the bible it’s so clearly promoting. The summary contained on that page reads, “[W]e can conclude that the Bible, especially when viewed alongside other historical information, is a reliable historical source.” The text even makes the claim that “The writer of Genesis (traditionally thought to be Moses) says . . .” Genuine scholarship shows that Moses was not the author. 

In response to a Freedom From Religion Foundation complaint about serious constitutional violations within the Clemson University football program in South Carolina, Coach Dabo Swinney issued a statement today.

After an investigation, FFRF sent a complaint April 10 about religious entanglements in the program. Swinney's prepared statement began, “Over the past week or two, there has been a lot of discussion of my faith.” The full statement can be read here.

FFRF, in a statement of its own, calls on the coach to take responsibility for his conduct and make changes to the program:

"Coach Dabo Swinney’s prepared statement does not address the fundamental constitutional problem. While it is reassuring to hear that players of any faith or no faith are welcome to play football at Clemson, public school coaches also must not endorse or advance religion. His religion is not the issue; it is his proselytizing in a public university football program. It is a bedrock constitutional principle that government employees cannot abuse their position to advance their religion. Unfortunately, the current climate of entanglement between the football program and religion sends a message of inclusion of fundamentalist Christian football players while excluding all others.

"University records reveal that Clemson coaches are intimately involved in team bible studies, church services and other religious activities. Clemson University needs to take corrective action and ensure that coaches are not violating the Constitution. As it stands, the coach has failed to take responsibility for promoting Christianity as part of the football program and failed to state what, if any, corrective action he will take."

The coach says in his statement that players "must be good citizens." FFRF reminds him that good citizens obey the law — in this case the Constitution, the highest law of the land.

After a concerned parent contacted FFRF, Lincoln Elementary School in Pryor, Okla., will no longer allow the evangelical Christian group Gideons International to distribute bibles to grade school students.

According to the complainant, teachers took fifth grade classes to the cafeteria where Gideon representatives sat a table and encouraged students to take copies of the bible. The Gideons reportedly “explained a little bit about the bible” to the students as they approached. Our complainant’s child felt that they “had no choice but to take one.”

FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert sent a letter on March 19 to Superintendent Don Raleigh explaining why this violation is exceptionally egregious:

“Public schools have a constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion and to protect the rights of conscience of young and impressionable students. When a school distributes religious literature to its students, or permits evangelists to distribute religious literature to its students, it entangles itself with that religious message. . .

“In many cases, this divisive message regarding a school’s preference for religion over nonreligion is taken up by students within the school, resulting in the bullying of those students who choose to exercise their conscience by not accepting a bible. Forcing an adult’s religious ideas on children and encouraging those children to do the same to their peers is predatory and impermissible.”

On April 9, the district responded that, “Pryor School District will not distribute nor allow the distribution of any religious or anti-religious materials, including but not limited to, Bibles distributed by The Gideon Society, on elementary school grounds or to any elementary school students.”

Click on thumbnail to see high-resolution images. 

The nation’s largest association of atheists and agnostics this morning is placing a patriotic red-white-and-blue secular display to counter a large Catholic Easter display at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago that will be hard to miss.

Two colorful 8-foot banners on a 12-foot structure promoting the secular views of founding fathers will be placed by noon in Daley Plaza by the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and its FFRF Metropolitan Chicago chapter. Three FFRF staff attorneys — Patrick Elliott, Andrew Seidel and Sam Grover — have driven to Chicago from Madison to install the display with chapter help on a wooden structure they built for the back-to-back banners.

One banner reads: “In Reason We Trust,” and pictures Thomas Jefferson, displaying his famous advice to a nephew, “Question with boldness even the existence of a god.” The other side proclaims, “Keep State & Religion Separate,” and pictures President John Adams, who signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which assured “. . . the government of the United States is not in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. . .”

The FFRF display is designed to counter nine days of round-the-clock prayer and evangelism in Daley Plaza by the Thomas More Society, a Catholic group, which has evangelized in the plaza every Easter since 2011. The group’s aim, through its “Divine Mercy Project,” is to seek the “conversion of Chicago, America and the Whole World.”

The Catholic society is expected to place a 10-foot-tall painting of Jesus on Friday, which it claims was miraculously inspired, with the statement “Jesus, I trust in you.” The painting is accompanied by a 14-foot cross on the public plaza. In past years, Catholic supporters have also held 24-hour prayer vigils, distributed thousands of prayer cards and hosted anti-abortion rallies in front of the Jesus painting.

Rather than place such displays on church grounds, the Thomas More Society explicitly seeks to take over public property for its purposes, claiming that at Daley Plaza it encounters “militants, feminists, Satanists, radical Muslims, just about everybody.”

FFRF additionally has two smaller posters affixed to each side of its display, explaining its purpose, written by Tom Cara, Chicago chapter director: “Not looking to convert? Neither are we,” protesting use of government property to endorse the beliefs of a specific religious group. Another poster questions the “divine mercy” of the bible upon which Catholicism is predicated.

FFRF thanks Patrick Elliott, Andrew Seidel and Sam Grover for “yeoman” work in fashioning the display, and Tom Cara and other volunteers with its active Chicago chapter.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is protesting the illegal closure of the public utility in Sun Prairie, Wis., in observance of Good Friday, and the inappropriate use of religious iconography (a crown of thorns) on Sun Prairie Utilities’ website.

Within an hour of receiving a letter of complaint April 16 from FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert, SPU removed the “crown of thorns” imagery but retained its announcement that the office would close Friday for the Christian religious observance.

Markert informed Utility Manager Rick Wicklund that as a municipally owned corporation, SPU is in violation of a federal court ruling won by FFRF in 1996. The ruling by U.S. District Judge John Shabaz in FFRF v. Thompson overturned a law declaring Good Friday a state holiday because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The law mandated the closure of public offices in the afternoon and required citizens to worship. 

The court concluded, “The language of Wisconsin's Good Friday holiday law and its undisputed effect of favoring Christianity over other religions leads overwhelmingly to the conclusion that promotion of Christianity is the primary purpose of the law. Defendants’ weak efforts to suggest that Good Friday has become secularized or that Wisconsin has other business reasons for adopting it as a holiday are insufficient as a matter of law to support a finding that the purpose and effect of the statute has changed significantly since its enactment.”

FFRF’s letter added, “As a matter of policy, SPU should remain open on Good Friday and provide regular services to Sun Prairie citizens. SPU likely does not close its offices for Yom Kippur, Ramadan or any other non-Christian religious holidays. Therefore, SPU should not close its doors for a day commemorated only by Christians.”

FFRF sought assurances the practice will cease immediately.

“We should not still have to be mopping up 18 years after a conclusive victory in federal court,” commented FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor, an original plaintiff along with several state employees, against Gov. Tommy Thompson in the 1996 case.

“Local officials need to be cognizant of what the law is and observe it instead of an exclusionary religious event,” Gaylor said.

Freedom From Religion Foundation member Douglas Marshall, who previously sued the city of Warren, Mich., when it censored his attempt to place a freethought winter solstice sign in its city atrium, has been censored again by Warren Mayor James R. Fouts.

Marshall sought a permit to place a table in the atrium of city hall on Thursday, May 1, the date of the federally-proclaimed National Day of Prayer. A “Prayer Station” has been setting up shop for years in this same city atrium with city approval.

Fouts turned down Marshall’s request in an April 15 letter, writing: “All of these events are allowed because of the right to freedom of religion constitutional amendment [sic]. We cannot and will not restrict this right for any religion to use the atrium, as long as the activity is open to all religions.

“To my way of thinking, your group is strictly an anti-religion group intending to deprive all organized religions of their constitutional freedoms or at least discourage the practice of religion. The City of Warren cannot allow this.”

Fouts’ refusal is a legal “smoking gun,” showing outright government censorship of freethought and government endorsement of religion, said Annie Laurie Gaylor, who co-directs the Madison, Wis.-baesd FFRF, the nation’s largest association of atheists and agnostics and a state/church watchdog.

“It is an axiom of U.S. law that if the government creates a public forum, it may not discriminate, or favor religious messages over nonreligious messages,” she noted.

When Fouts allowed a nativity display, but censored FFRF’s sign critical of religion — which he called “highly offensive,” FFRF and Marshall challenged Fouts, filing a federal suit in December 2011. The lawsuit, which included both a free speech and Establishment Clause claim, was lost at the Sixth Circuit in February 2013.

FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert noted that a challenge of the most recent censorship could proceed solely as a free speech case.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is leaving on display — as evidence of the divisiveness of religion in government — its mutilated sign saying “Nobody died for our sins,” which was vandalized by a fanatic before noon today in the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison.

A man wrested FFRF’s foamboard sign, which was securely taped to an easel, and violently mangled it in front of passersby. Capitol security was quickly summoned and gave chase, but the vandal got away.

FFRF has affixed a new statement on top of the mangled sign, which is still legible:

Why is this sign so mutilated?

Somebody, presumably somebody who disagreed with our message, tried to destroy our sign. Apparently, this person believes the Capitol is a public forum for Christianity only.

If you don’t think religious messages should be displayed on government property, join the club! We don’t think they should be, either. But as long as religious groups use the Capitol to proselytize, FFRF has a right to respond to their message.

Religion is divisive. It belongs in churches, not the State Capitol. Keep religion out of government.

FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION

FFRF had sought and received a permit to display its message, "Nobody died for our sins. Jesus Christ is a myth,” in response to “Concerned Women for America’s” Easter display, which includes a cross on a table with religious and antiabortion literature and misinformation about birth control. FFRF has made an open records request for a copy of surveillance tapes.

“This crime, seeking to suppress dissent, is a lesson in the danger of injecting religion into the seat of state government,” Gaylor added. “We strongly object to CWA placing a cross in the rotunda — a symbol of the dominant religion and increasingly a symbol of political intimidation today. But if religious symbols and imagery are permitted, then there must be room for dissent.” F

FRF thanks its staffers Jackie Douglas, Andrew Seidel, Patrick Elliott, Lauryn Seering and Dayna Long for help producing, displaying, and protecting its Capitol sign.

The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has a display up in the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison to counter one from the Concerned Women for America, based in Washington, D.C.

FFRF's display on the first floor of the rotunda says "Nobody died for our sins. Jesus Christ is a myth." FFRF received a permit for its display April 14 after learning of CWA’s. The CWA Easter display has a cross and a plethora of conservative materials, including antiabortion literature (one reading: “Equal rights for born and pre-born”).

“It’s unfortunate to see a sectarian symbol that is increasingly used as a symbol of political intimidation in our state capitol,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “It’s also unfortunate to see women a serving as a front for a patriarchal religion based on women’s subservience and second-class status. This is the same group that helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment citing its allegiance to biblical principles, instead of civil liberties under our secular government."

CWA, founded by archconservative Beverly LaHaye in 1979 in San Diego, says it's "the nation's largest public policy women's organization with a rich 30-year history of helping our members across the country bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy. There's a cultural battle raging across this country and CWA is on the frontline protecting those values through prayer and action."

CWA says it focuses on "seven core issues: the family, the sanctity of human life, religious liberty, education, sexual exploitation, national sovereignty and support for Israel." LaHaye, 84, says she started CWA to counter the "anti-God" National Organization for Women. A recent CWA initiative is Young Women for America, which has the same goals — to bring conservative Christianity into high schools and colleges.

Kim Simac, a tea party activist from Eagle River, Wis., heads Wisconsin's chapter, according to CWA's website.

LaHaye and others within CWA have blamed gay people for a “radical leftist crusade” in America and have equated homosexuality with pedophilia. Last August, CWA President Wendy Wright said gays were using same-sex marriage “to indoctrinate children in schools to reject their parents’ values and to harass, sue and punish people who disagree.”

In an April 10 letter of complaint to Clemson University, the Freedom From Religion Foundation details several serious constitutional concerns about how the public university's football program is entangled with religion. The school in Clemson, S.C., responded Feb. 25 to FFRF's open records request, on which the complaint to Erin Swan Lauderdale, senior associate general counsel, is based.

"Christian worship seems interwoven into Clemson’s football program," wrote FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott. "We are concerned that this commingling of religion and athletics results, not from student initiative, but rather from the attitudes and unconstitutional behaviors of the coaching staff."

FFRF, a Madison, Wis.-based state-church watchdog, has about 20,000 members nationwide and 155 in South Carolina.

• Trapp was regularly given access to the entire team in between drills for bible study.
FFRF says that by granting Trapp such access, Swinney shows "preference for religion over nonreligion, alienates those players who don’t believe as he does, and creates a culture of religious coercion within the university's football program.

• The chaplain has an office at the Jervey Athletic Center, displays bible quotes on a whiteboard and organized and led sessions on “being baptized” in the athletic building.

"Mr. Trapp, as a paid employee of a state university, may not proselytize or promote religion and may not use his university office to do so," Elliott wrote. He also serves as a Fellowship of Christian Athletes representative and as a football recruiting assistant. A website lists him as campus director of ministry/life coach, and he refers to himself as a minister.

"Mr. Trapp’s legal duties and obligations as a state employee prohibit him from using state resources (i.e., his office in the Jervey Athletic Center) and his official position as a recruiting assistant to proselytize. If Mr. Trapp is to evangelize the team, he must not do so as the recruiting assistant, nor can it be at coach Swinney’s insistence."

FFRF also contends, due to information it's received, that:
• Swinney confirmed that the entire team would attend an FCA breakfast Dec. 31, 2011, wherein three players would “testify.”

• Three privately funded buses (116-seat total capacity) were used to take the team and coaches to Valley Brook Baptist Church on Aug. 7, 2011, and on other occasions for worship on “Church Day.”

• Swinney schedules team devotionals. Records indicate that between March 2012 and April 2013, approximately 87 devotionals were organized by Trapp, approved by Swinney and led by coaching staff.

"[P]layers wishing to abstain should not be forced to subject themselves to the resentment, embarrassment or scrutiny that could result from taking such a stand," Elliott said, citing the 1992 Supreme Court case Lee v. Weisman.

FFRF wants the school to direct Swinney and Trapp to immediately stop team prayers, sermons, bible studies and “church days” for players and train staff about their First Amendment obligations and monitor compliance.

In 2012, FFRF sent a letter to Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C., alerting officials to similar violations in its football program. The university agreed that the program’s religious entanglement was coercive and had no legitimate place in the athletic program.

A January 2014 Sports Illustrated story said Swinney had recently signed an eight-year contract for $27.15 million.