Illegal To Give Thanks

As Thanksgiving approaches, it is worth mentioning that a successful high school football coach in New Jersey got fired, after 23 years on the job, simply for conducting prayer with his players before games. The coach, Marcus Borden, is fighting back now with a lawsuit against the school district that claims his constitutional right was violated (UPI article).

The interesting thing is that prayer and sports have always been a part of each other, whether at the professional, collegiate or high school level. The executive director of the 10,000-member American Football Coaches Association says that more than 50% of high school football coaches nationwide pray with their teams regularly and nobody gets fired.

It’s not like the coach was offending anyone or conducting lengthy sermons. He usually led grace at team dinners and would “take a knee” during student-initiated and student-led pre game prayer in the locker room, according to a detailed article in the New Brunswick Home News Tribune.

Besides, as the blog Capital Region People points out: “As long as there are tests in school there will be prayer in school and that goes double for sports. As long as there are two opposing teams, each will be trying to pray the other down to defeat.”