The anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is once again attacking Colorado football coach Deion Sanders. It is claiming that his team chaplain violates the U.S. Constitution.
The organization that specializes in threatening to sue schools over perceived “violations” of the separation of church and state has sent a four-page letter to the University of Colorado demanding that the football team’s chaplain be eliminated, according to Fox News.
The anti-religion group claims that Sanders is risking the education of his “young and impressionable student athletes” who might be afraid to opt out of having contact with the team’s chaplain.
“Coaches exert great influence and power over student athletes and those athletes will follow the lead of their coach. Using a coaching position to promote Christianity amounts to unconstitutional religious coercion,” the FFRF letter insists.
The organization has targeted Sanders before. It attacked Sanders, who became coach of Colorado in 2023, over his open profession of faith, claiming that it crosses the boundary from personal beliefs to “coercion” of the players. After that past criticism, the school claimed that Sander underwent nondiscrimination policies and establishment clause requirements after his hiring.
However, another organization, the First Liberty Institute (FLI), has issued a letter of its own and noted that no less an authority than the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that coaches professing their religious beliefs do not violate the Constitution.
“FFRF’s letter is beyond inaccurate,” said FLI constitutional lawyer Keisha Russell. “The cases that we do have about chaplains programs and the government providing chaplains in public life, there are a lot of cases about it, and it’s clearly allowed.”
FLI notes that in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that High School football coach Joe Kennedy had a right to pray on the football field and allow students to join him if they desired. Russell feels that the precedent would naturally cover a school chaplain’s position.
“If you combine that with what the Supreme Court has recently said about religion and students, and particularly the last Coach Kennedy case, I think it’s pretty clear that these students are old enough to kind of differentiate for themselves what they want to do in that situation, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with their coach inviting one in for inspiration,” Russell explained. “The practice is definitely constitutional, and it’s highly likely that they would uphold this practice as proper under the First Amendment.”
For his part, Sanders has repeatedly and openly praised God and thanked him for his success.
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