Quote:

Teachers, coaches, etc. cannot lead a group prayer. To do so would be viewed as school endorsement of a specific religion, which is unconstitutional under the principle of separation of church and state.

(Doe v. Santa Fe Independent School District, 168 F.3rd 806 [5th Cir. 1999]) prohibited school-sponsored student prayer activity at sporting events. School-sponsored student prayer is prohibited by the constitution; student-sponsored student prayer is free speech protected by the constitution.





In actuality, this is simply an interpretation of the Constitution by a Supreme Court that happened to be sitting at the time. A little-known fact is that the words "separation of church and state" never appear in the Constitution; they are, again, an interpretation by a group of individuals who happened to hold power when the issue was reviewed.

The First Amendment simply says:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Now, I realize I'm not a lawyer; I'm just a simple soccer coach and English teacher, but I'd have to say it's a bit of a stretch to interpret "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" to actually mean "no coach can lead a prayer at a school athletic event" (I for one don't carry quite the weight of Congress and even my players don't take my word as absolute law), and to say that "nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof" means "you are prohibited by law to pray with your team if you happen to be a state employee" seems to be an even farther stretch, just from a rhetorical analysis perspective. The words of the amendment just don't match up with the application handed down by our modern legal minds.

Historical perspective on the founding fathers' most likely reasons for and intent of the amendment upon request.

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