The Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging a Tennessee school district to rein in a soccer coach attempting to proselytize student athletes via a religious reading assignment.
A concerned parent informed the state/church watchdog that the boyās soccer team coach at Hendersonville High School (Gallatin, Tenn.) assigned a book with a pervasively sectarian message to the team late last year, saying: āEvery player is expected to have a copy by January 9th. If you have any questions please let me know.ā The complainant reported that the coach wanted the team to read the book together.
āStudent athletes are especially susceptible to coercion,ā FFRF Patrick OāReiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to Superintendent Scott Langford. āReligious assignments for student athletes place them in a difficult position: They must either go along with their coachās religious preferencesālikely against their own conscienceāor openly dissent at risk of their team standing.ā It is improper and unacceptable for a public school coach to impose his personal religious beliefs onto students in this manner.
The book in question, Coach Woodenās Pyramid of Success by Coach John Wooden and Jay Carthy, contains frequent references to religion and faith. Particularly, Woodenās Christian viewpoints are stressed as a factor leading to success. One Google Booksās preview features the word ābibleā roughly 30 times, the word āGodā 70 times, and the word ālordā roughly 20 times. Every chapter concludes with a prayer. Cumulatively, the 160-page book contains hundreds of references to Christianity. Particularly concerning is a quote in which the authors justify law-breaking in the name of Jesus:
Just to survive, Christians will be tempted to be dishonest about their faith. Peter faced a similar quandary. The Pharisees didnāt like his preaching and threatened to throw him in jail if he didnāt shut up. He told them no and kept preaching. Why did Peter violate existing law? For the greater good of all, he had to conform to the higher laws of God. We can call this a just cause…Peter broke the law for a just cause and went to jail. At some point, each of us may need to make a similar just-cause decision. There are powerful forces attempting to remove God from the fabric of our society. The day may come when we must decide whether we will follow a law of the land or the Law of God. Our honesty may be tested.
The First Amendmentās Establishment Clause requires government neutrality between religions, and between religion and nonreligion. It is uncontroversial for a coach to assign a book to build camaraderie, but this assignment did the opposite: It sowed division between those who agree with the bookāChristians who share Coach Woodenās āold schoolā views on religionāand those who do not. A student who does not share the Christian beliefs mentioned in Woodenās Pyramid of Success faces a dilemma: Leave the team or betray their conscience.
āLike any public school employee, the coachās actions must be consistent with the First Amendment. While Coach Woodenās Pyramid of Success comes short of assigning the bible itself, the biblical references coupled with the external citations transmogrifies the simple book club into something moreā a bible study,ā writes Joshi. Promoting religious viewpoints through the schoolās extra curricular activities needlessly alienates students and families who are not Christian, including those who are nonreligious. At least a third of Generation Z (those born after 1996) have no religion, with a recent survey revealing almost half of Gen Z qualify as religiously unaffiliated ānones.ā
FFRF brings attention to a compelling point from Wooden himself:
I served as a basketball coach at a public institution; therefore, I didnāt talk about my faith. I never felt it was appropriate. I always had a bible on my desk and I intentionally led by example, based on Christās teaching; but I wasnāt vocal about my beliefs. I just attempted to demonstrate them by the way I live my life…[F]aith in God wasnāt a part of my curriculum, so I didnāt preach. Iām not a minister in that sense. I was a basketball coach who was charged with producing good men and graduates who also played basketball…I never tried to change someoneās faith. I saw that as Godās job, not mine.
FFRF is urging the district to instruct all staff and faculty to refrain from proselytizing, including assigning books containing religious messages.
āThis extracurricular assignment is extremely offensive in multiple ways, including using faith as a justification for breaking the law,ā says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. āStudents need to know that they do not need to pray to play at Sumner County Schools.ā
The Freedom From Religion Foundation serves as the nationās largest association of freethinkers, with 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including almost 500 members and a chapter in Tennessee, and works as a state/church watchdog to safeguard the constitutional principle of separation between state and church.