As a lawyer who defends individual constitutional rights, and as an individual concerned about my own freedoms of religion and expression, I read with interest the article entitled “Pastors provide outlets for athletes’ faith” (ODE, March 14), describing the close relationship between two local churches and the Duck men’s football and basketball teams.
Coach Mike Bellotti “holds two separate chapel services for Christian and Catholic athletes before every game.” A Christian pastor “runs pre-game chapel services for the basketball team players” and rides along on the bus to away games. According to a previous article (“God’s squad?” ODE, March 12), every basketball game is preceded by and ends with a team prayer session.
Did the sports editor and author of the article ask the coaches or their team’s pastors why they think it is appropriate for an athletic program at a public university to sponsor religious programs? Were they asked to comment on whether the prayer sessions and Christian counseling described in the articles are consistent with the rule, announced by the U.S. Supreme Court just three years ago in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, that permitting even student-led, student-initiated prayer at athletic events violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment? Or with the constitutional requirement that public institutions refrain from sanctioning official prayers?
In deciding numerous, politically sensitive cases regarding the relationship between public educational institutions and religious observance, the court has recognized that “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 outsides, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.’”
The athletes involved certainly have the right to their individual religious beliefs, and if religious devotion makes them perform better athletically, more power to their formula for success. The University’s imprimatur on such observance is troubling, however. While exclusion of those outside the faith is certainly not the intent of the coaches involved, one has to wonder: What message does this state university, sports-religion connection send to non-Christian members of the athletic squads involved, potential recruits for those squads, and the spectators and fans who support and cheer for them?