A high school football coach in Washington state who won his job back after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he could pray on the field resigned Wednesday after just one game back.
Assistant Bremerton High School coach Joe Kennedy made the announcement on his website, citing several reasons, including that he needed to care for an ailing family member out of state. He had been living full-time in Florida, and before the first game last Friday he said he didn’t know if he’d continue coaching.
“I believe I can best continue to advocate for constitutional freedom and religious liberty by working from outside the school system so that is what I will do,” Kennedy wrote. “I will continue to work to help people understand and embrace the historic ruling at the heart of our case.”
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.”
The Nazis always show you who they are
This is not a prohibition for public prayer, despite~~ reddit’s~~lemmy’s inclination to always quote this whenever public prayer is mentioned
This dude is obviously showboating as the scripture describes. There’s no reason to go out on the middle of the field and kneel other than “look at me!”
It also doesn’t help that he peer pressured his students into doing the same.
It may not be a prohibition against public prayer (though Jesus goes on to say that when you pray you should do so in an inner room of your own home), but it is absolutely an admonition about exactly the behavior of this coach, who would go kneel in the middle of the field and pray for show.
It’s not a sin. It won’t land you in hell. But I would say it’s a prohibition, if you take into account that it’s said by literally god.
I’m not steeped in theology but I thought acting against one of God’s prohibitions is what a sin is. What distinguishes the two?
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Openly pray to Satan in school, since it’s perfectly legal
I believe I can best continue to advocate for constitutional freedom and religious liberty by working from outside the school system so that is what I will do
Damnit, he’s going to run for Congress.
Or he’s getting a job with Newsmax or something similar.
Tuberville 2.0
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
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That’s from the Bible though Matthew 6:5. All churches were called synagogues back then. It’s not anti-Semitic. The commenter above is quoting this to show that the Bible frowns upon performative praying as this coach is doing.
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How embarrassing for you.
Was Jesus an anti-Semite?!?
Early Christians prayed in synagogues since they were Jews who recognized Jesus as their savior. So the person who said that was a Jew, he is known as Jesus. Also the quote is not calling everyone who prays in a synagogue a hypocrite. But people who stand up praying loudly. Asshole
Imagine being this stupid.
“can best continue to advocate for constitutional freedom and religious liberty by” ostracizing other religious beliefs and making those students feel uncomfortable
This is the part that gets skipped.
It wasn’t him just going out and saying a little, quiet prayer to himself. I wouldn’t give a shit about that, I don’t think anybody would. You do you.
He was bringing a ton of students into the fold. The whole team was praying with him.
He claimed that it wasn’t required or expected but come on. You know damn well if you were a player on the team and you’re the only guy not praying, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Something tells me that you would also have found yourself quickly dropped from the team.
He just decided that “victimhood” pays better than coaching that’s all. It’s just Economics.
Love how SCOTUS misrepresented facts in this case. Thanks Cardinal Alito and Cult Lady Barrett.
Just Like the lady who recently claimed an LGBTQ couple wanted her business to serve them against her religious beliefs and then we all found out there was no such real customers? She had made up the situation to go to the courts and they still sided with her!!?
It went according to plan.
Wasn’t this one where they just outright invented ‘facts’ wholesale?
He’s always was just another Republican snowflake looking for attention, by doing what the Bible says not to fucking do btw, and money.
Fuck this fake ass Republican bigot, racist, and honestly shitty fake ass Christian.
In other words “news” outlets are paying him more to be on TV as a mouthpiece. C’mon now buddy, almost everyone knows the hustle now.
Wonder what happens if a coach bows and prays to Satan on the field, will his rights be respected too?
Pretty sure it was a political stunt from the start.
This is a very misleading article and leaves out the (key) first part of his statement:
“[I]t is apparent that the reinstatement ordered by the Supreme Court will not be fully followed after a series of actions meant to diminish my role and single me out in what I can only believe is retaliation by the school district,” Kennedy wrote.
They’re welcome to try to sue for defamation if he’s lying, but I suspect he’ll end up winning a pretty penny in a lawsuit of his own.
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Sure, there’s probably a lot of context missing from the posted article. However my main issue is if you’re going to report his statement then it’s a bit underhanded to cut out the main first part of it.
He is free to do as he wants, just like everyone else. If he wants to pray, he can pray.
What he is not free to do is require (or pressure) players on his team to take part in the prayer, or make it seem as though it is an officially endorsed action by the public school system. But he absolutely has the freedom to pray whenever he wants for whatever he wants.
Prayer happens in the mind. Assuming he wasn’t making anyone recite stuff out loud, at best people would just stand their for a minute while he does his pre-game ritual or whatever. My family prayed before every meal when I was growing up. I just sat there and waited until they were done. I didn’t actively participate by praying, but I also wasn’t a dick about it.
It sounds like you aren’t familiar with any prior articles related to this coach.
C’mon, since when is even cursory knowledge required to comment on the subject? /s
Should I apologize for not knowing the details of something that happened to a random football coach in 2015?
I mean, the article that this post is linked to discusses it, and has a link to more information. So, in this case, yes?
It wasn’t like that, he was forcing players to pray, they didn’t have to option to object or they would be kicked off the team.
Based on the information from the court case, they didn’t find evidence of that
But it was asserted there was social pressure to do so.
Have a source for that assertion?
