So here’s the thing that liberals ALL understand and right wingers ALL fail to (demonstrate that they) understand: Religious freedom is freedom FROM religion. That coach is and was perfectly free to pray in private. He was fired for (as the administration saw it) putting kids who weren’t inclined to pray (that way) into a position where they had to either compromise their own beliefs in order to (as they saw it) stay on the good side of the coach, or they had to take the chance that their careers would be harmed by NOT acting as he wished they would. BECAUSE he was doing it on the 50 yard line in public. It is EXACTLY the same sort of thing as a manager hitting on an employee. Persons with power aren’t ALLOWED to coerce those who depend on them.
As a person who was coerced in a very similar way, I can attest that as long as my parents were spending money to keep me in school, I felt compelled to honor their religious behavior. The MOMENT that I graduated, I stopped going to their church except when I chose to do it. Which caused them pain, they said… completely ignoring the amount of their particular form of BS that I’d had forced down my throat for 20+ years. How many of those kids decided to demonstrate their prayerful behavior once the coach wasn’t leading it? I believe the number could be counted on the noses of one hand.
So here’s the thing that liberals ALL understand and right wingers ALL fail to (demonstrate that they) understand: Religious freedom is freedom FROM religion. That coach is and was perfectly free to pray in private. He was fired for (as the administration saw it) putting kids who weren’t inclined to pray (that way) into a position where they had to either compromise their own beliefs in order to (as they saw it) stay on the good side of the coach, or they had to take the chance that their careers would be harmed by NOT acting as he wished they would. BECAUSE he was doing it on the 50 yard line in public. It is EXACTLY the same sort of thing as a manager hitting on an employee. Persons with power aren’t ALLOWED to coerce those who depend on them.
As a person who was coerced in a very similar way, I can attest that as long as my parents were spending money to keep me in school, I felt compelled to honor their religious behavior. The MOMENT that I graduated, I stopped going to their church except when I chose to do it. Which caused them pain, they said… completely ignoring the amount of their particular form of BS that I’d had forced down my throat for 20+ years. How many of those kids decided to demonstrate their prayerful behavior once the coach wasn’t leading it? I believe the number could be counted on the noses of one hand.