Coach Joe Kennedy and prayer on the football field

Lately, Bremerton High School Coach Joe Kennedy has been in the news because of his insistence on praying on the football field after a game. The controversy over his actions has gone beyond the local newspaper, blogs, and columns all the way to tweets by Presidential nominees.

Coach Kennedy, a part-time assistant coach for the Bremerton High School football team, has had a practice of coming to midfield after a game, kneeling on one knee and praying a prayer of thanks for the game and for the young men who played. He's never invited the athletes to join him, but many do anyway. It's recently become public, and the School Board has been trying to discourage him from doing this because he is openly defying their policy on public prayer.

I'm very skeptical of his efforts, but I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. I can imagine that he might feel so strongly about witnessing for his faith that he sees his public prayers as a bold witness for Christ. This is his way of doing evangelism.

Beyond that, he might feel that our country has gone too far by banning public prayer in the schools and other public venues. Possibly he feels that our moral values depend upon public recognition that we are a Christian nation. Perhaps he is sincere in this.

But I am skeptical. First of all, as an employee of the school district, he has agreed to abide by their policies. It looks like he's using his position as a coach to advance his own agenda. His function as a coach is to help young people become better athletes. That doesn't include prayer after games.

One of the reasons school prayer is banned is because young people are so easily swayed by peer pressure. Although it might seem that the athletes who join him are of the same mind, very likely some athletes feel they have to join with their teammates or risk being ostracised. It's pressuring young people in the name of religion.

For a second thing, I don't believe he's actually praying. What he's doing amounts to a public performance. He may be saying the words of a prayer, aloud or silently, but his actions speak so loudly the prayer is obscured. He's making a public show of his prayer. Jesus said something about this:

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:5-6)

So thirdly it seems to me that Coach Kennedy is just using this forum as a way to make a political point. He has brought in the Liberty Institute, a conservative advocacy group that defends religious liberty cases, to push his case into the courts.

Coach Kennedy works full-time at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and he's only a part-time coach. It seems like he's imported his concerns from outside the school.

Members of the School Board have been struggling to keep this from going to court, but he seems determined to have his way. His efforts make a mockery of his job as a coach. The amount of money the school district will have to spend on legal costs will hurt the school district and the very athletes he is supposed to be serving. It doesn't seem that he really cares about the athletes or about prayer. What he cares about is making a political statement.

Prayer is opening ourselves to God. It means humbling ourselves so we can listen and respond to God. Prayer is not a forum for lecturing, grandstanding, or making a political point. No wonder Jesus urged us to go into our room and shut the door when we pray.