When I read Mark Weintraub’s guest commentary on religion and sports (“Sports, religion connection fouls out at University,” ODE, April 7), I was appalled at his closed-mindedness regarding prayer services. In “God’s Squad?” the author makes it clear the players enjoy the prayer services. Also, the pastors, whether they are sponsored by the school or not, volunteer their time with the basketball team.
It doesn’t matter “why the pastors or coaches believe it is appropriate for an athletic program at a public university to sponsor religious programs.” What matters is that students get something out of the program. If the players “meditated” to chanting Buddhist monks, I doubt the same controversy would arise; however, because the pastors offer a place to pray to the God of Christianity, it is unconstitutional. I believe that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The First Amendment does not say that freedom of religion is kept by keeping people from practicing elements of their religion in public places, but that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the exercise thereof.
The basketball team, as any sports team, probably shares a lot more than religion. They are probably very good friends — Congress should not keep students from practicing spirituality with their closest friends. If the basketball team wants to ask God for daily guidance in any area of their life, they should be allowed to.
With Weintraub’s commentary, a new thought has arisen in my mind: If “school sponsorship of a religious message is impermissible because it sends the ancillary message to members of the audience who are nonadherents ‘that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community,’” then we must proceed to abolish all clubs, fraternities and sororities, all of whom share the position of “adherents.”
I am part of an audience that deals with being on the “outside” of a sexually driven, alcohol-driven “group” that is very much “student-run.” It certainly doesn’t seem as though it isn’t school sponsored, despite the technicality of having a “dry campus.”
Living in this country is about being able to express your differences, not being suppressed because of your differences in order to protect people who are different from you. The message sent, as a result of this sports-religion connection Weintraub speaks of, is that a huge number of students are Christian and they appreciate their right to pray together when they are together. If some of the basketball players do not wish to participate in the prayer services, they are lucky, because it is their right not to.
Everyone is there voluntarily, and those who feel like “outsiders” feel so voluntarily, as well.