In America, Christianity is linked with sports (because if Jesus were real, he’d definitely care about specific teams and games, right?). In fact, it’s hard to watch postgame coverage of any college or professional game without hearing a coach or player mention God, Jesus or prayer. And at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, we receive complaints every year about coaches at all education levels entangling their personal religion with public school athletics programs.
Last September, we wrote to coach Deion Sanders (again) because he continues to intertwine his religion with the football program. And this January, we called out coach Spencer Danielson of Boise State for saying the football program would give “Jesus the glory” and be a “light on a hill.” Danielson said that anyone uncomfortable with his religious agenda should not attend Boise State. If it’s not obvious, both University of Colorado and Boise State are public schools, and their football programs have no business promoting Christianity or any other religion.
Unfortunately, the infusion of Christianity into sports culture isn’t relegated to the big leagues. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), an evangelical organization, has been expanding its presence in K-12 schools on a mission to convert public school students to Christianity.
According to its website, the FCA “desire[s] to see every coach and athlete enter into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His church.” It “seek[s] to make disciples through our strategy of engaging, equipping and empowering coaches and athletes to know and grow in Christ and lead others to do the same.” How is it accomplishing this goal? By using public schools, of course!
The FCA sets up shop in schools as a religious club that intertwines itself with school athletics programs. Adult FCA representatives are almost always involved. Yes, you read that right. Adults who work for the FCA, not schools, often run the clubs, recruit students, and try to find willing school staff who will allow the FCA to exercise control over not just the club but also the school’s athletics.
Increasingly, the FCA uses “character coaches” and chaplains to infiltrate schools and fuse a school’s FCA club with the school’s sports teams. According to the FCA, character coaches are supposed to help athletes develop character based on values, not faith. But, obviously, the “values” character coaches are meant to install happen to align with evangelical Christianity. Chaplains are exactly what they sound like — they’re meant to provide students with “spiritual guidance” and help convert students to Christianity.
So a middle school’s basketball team might become a de facto FCA club, and any non-Christian or nonreligious students who want to join the basketball team will then have to put up with the FCA’s representatives pushing Christianity at games, practices and other events. The presence of the FCA in the school’s basketball program will inevitably create a coercive environment where student athletes feel they must participate in the religious FCA activities to fit in and avoid retaliation from their teammates or coaches.
FFRF receives countless complaints about FCA each year from concerned parents, school employees and community members about similar scenarios. For example, last summer we were informed that a public high school in Green Clove Springs, Fla., was allowing an FCA character coach (who also happened to be a Baptist pastor) to preach to student athletes, including handing out copies of the “Athlete’s Bible” to students. After bringing our concerns to the district, the superintendent told FFRF that the district conducted an investigation and met with the character coach/pastor and principal to ensure school policies are followed going forward.
You might be asking why or how the FCA is allowed to get away with this. The question is a good one, but the answer is complicated.
There are two routes the FCA can generally take to get into a public school. First, the FCA sometimes operates as an official religious “school club” that’s sanctioned by the school. To comply with the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, religious school clubs are supposed to be student-initiated and student-run. However, the FCA often side-steps those rules, using adult FCA reps, like character coaches, to initiate and help lead clubs. In some cases, school staff are also FCA reps, making it even easier for the FCA to gain influence in a school district.
Official religious school clubs walk a fine line, potentially steering into unconstitutional territory by using school resources to promote religion and encourage students to join. FFRF always asserts that under the First Amendment, religious school clubs are prohibited in elementary schools because there’s no way kids that young can possibly initiate and run a club without adults helping them. That means adults, either public school staff or outsiders, will necessarily be involved in promoting religion and encouraging young kids to join and organize a religious group, something the First Amendment forbids.
In the context of middle schools and high schools, the Equal Access Act says religious student clubs may exist, but they still can’t cross the constitutional line. The EAA prohibits public schools from discriminating against student clubs because of the “religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech” at the club’s meetings. So, if a public school allows secular student clubs to form, it must also allow religious student clubs. Before you ask, the Supreme Court has already ruled that the EAA is constitutional.
An official FCA club at a secondary school still can’t use school resources to promote or run the club. The club also needs to be genuinely student-initiated and student-led, so FCA reps or teachers should not be organizing and running the club. The reason religious clubs need to be student-run is that it reduces the possibility of unconstitutional religious coercion. In theory, students are less likely to feel pressured to join a club if fellow students are organizing it. Whereas, if their teacher (or coach) organizes a religious club and encourages students to join, students are more likely to feel pressured to attend the club to gain favor from or avoid retaliation from a teacher.
The second way the FCA might get a foothold in a school is by using school rental policies. Instead of trying to be an official student club, the FCA will rent school property and hold the club before or after school, similar to how Good News Clubs operate. This model is also difficult to challenge due to bad legal precedent that states if a public school allows outside organizations to rent school property for meetings, the school can’t exclude religious groups. If schools let secular groups rent, they must let religious groups rent.
Schools can avoid this by eliminating rentals for outside groups altogether, but that’s a big ask, since third-party rentals are a relatively easy way for school districts to generate extra revenue. In a country where school funding is rarely prioritized and federal funding is in limbo, schools are unsurprisingly reluctant to get rid of any policy that helps them make extra cash. Groups like FCA understand the precarious financial and legal positions public schools are in, so they prey upon these weaknesses in the system to convert kids to a particular brand of extremely conservative Christianity.
Despite the unfortunate legal landscape, community members, parents and students still have a voice. Often community activism can have a greater impact than you might think. If you’re concerned that your local school is too involved with the FCA, say something. Organize a group of like-minded parents, students or concerned community members to speak out and voice your concerns as one. Recently, community activism has helped push back against the growth of conservative release-time religious programs, such as LifeWise Academy. There’s no reason why collective action can’t work to stem the growth of FCA, as well.
As the FCA continues its expansion, FFRF will stand watch to take action and halt constitutional violations, protecting the First Amendment rights of children. To protect and one day rebuild the wall of separation between state and church, organizations such as FCA must be kept in check.
Photo by Isaac Iverson on Unsplash
