Church is Church. State Is State. No Mixing Please.

“[The founding fathers] knew that to put God in the constitution was to put man out. They knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought.... They intended that all should have the right to worship or not to worship [and] that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed."

--Robert G. Ingersoll, 19^th century free thinker

Here's the deal, Uncle Sam.

I don’t need high school football coach Joe Kennedy to kneel down on the fifty-yard line after a game and pray, all in the sight of a crowd of players and kids and parents and the general public. I don’t need his help promoting Christianity or my sect of Christianity or him publicly witnessing about the power of his particular faith in his role as a guide for young people.  I don’t want him assuming that he somehow needs to do this very public act of evangelizing on behalf of Christians everywhere, in order to bring more people into the fold, win souls for God, or even help me in pastoring to my church.

Thanks, but no thanks, Joe.

To bring you up to speed, if you hadn’t heard…three weeks ago the Supreme Court voted 6-3 on behalf of Kennedy, who had sued the Bremerton, Washington school department for wrongful termination. Kennedy’s contract as assistant football coach was not renewed when he refused to stop his post-game praying ritual in 2015. He sued and the case went all the way to the highest court in the land and on June 27^th, the justices ruled that Kennedy’s public prayer was protected first amendment speech and therefore should have been allowed to continue.

And I have to say as a Christian and a pastor, as one who loves God and loves church and loves the people I serve, and who wants so much to see folks find meaning and purpose in religion…I am sad at this ruling. You see I do not want the government in any way shape or form to promote, or to be seen as promoting my faith, or other faiths or any religions. I’m a believer in what is called the establishment clause of the United States Constitution, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.”

It’s important to remember that the founding fathers, including James Madison who authored the clause, had fled England, in part, because in that country there was no separation of church and state. None. There was one official religion, the Church of England and its clergy were essentially government employees, and the King (or Queen) was the head of that church. The folks who came to this country in 1620, the founders of the religious sect I belong to, fled in part to escape the oppression of such state sponsored religion. As Madison wrote of this necessary wall dividing church and state: “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries”

I hear the argument when it comes to support for Kennedy and his visible prayer.  He’s just praying, right? He has that right to practice his faith. He’s just doing what a person of faith does: talking to his God. What’s the matter with that?

Well, for one he’s a public employee and a teacher of young people by word and by example. It’s not the business of any public employees to either promote or demote any religion. When you are praying so publicly as he was, you are essentially teaching a lesson.

So too, his players look up to him and maybe want to emulate him and may feel like they must pray too, in order to curry favor with this coach. Make sure you get to start the game, right? And what of the Jewish or Muslim or Atheist players: will they pay the price if they choose not to pray a Christian prayer and take a knee with coach? And if this were only about his personal prayer, and nothing else, why couldn’t Kennedy just go into his office, close the door, sit at his desk, bow his head, and then talk to God?

Or was an audience somehow needed?

I like that government is not supposed to be in the religion business. I do not need or want their help, or any of their employees’ help, when it comes to spreading the faith. I like that the government cannot tell me just what I am supposed to pray about or tell the members I serve about how they are supposed to practice their religion. I like that there is no “Church of America” and that the President is not its head. I like the fact that the United States has the second oldest “freedom of religion” constitutional clause, second only in age to the one found in Rhode Island’s state constitution. Freedom to practice religion as one sees fit. And yes, to pray, absolutely, but also freedom of religion from government interest, promotion, or regulation.

Yes, even in a prayer by a well-meaning and faith-filled football coach.

Got me to thinking about the years I spent in middle and high school on the football field. None of my coaches ever prayed, at least not in public, or in their capacities as leaders of young men.  I don’t remember ever praying either.  And I don’t think that absence of religion took away from my experience. I loved playing football. I also loved going to church youth group on Sunday nights. I never imagined combining my two loves or getting them mixed up. Faith was faith. Football was football.

Freedom of religion. Freedom from government promoted religion. Both are precious freedoms.  I just wish the Supreme Court hadn’t so clearly fumbled the ball on this play.

The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.