A high school football coach in Washington state who won his job back after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he could pray on the field resigned Wednesday after just one game back.

Assistant Bremerton High School coach Joe Kennedy made the announcement on his website, citing several reasons, including that he needed to care for an ailing family member out of state. He had been living full-time in Florida, and before the first game last Friday he said he didn’t know if he’d continue coaching.

“I believe I can best continue to advocate for constitutional freedom and religious liberty by working from outside the school system so that is what I will do,” Kennedy wrote. “I will continue to work to help people understand and embrace the historic ruling at the heart of our case.”

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.”

    • escaped_cruzader@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is not a prohibition for public prayer, despite~~ reddit’s~~lemmy’s inclination to always quote this whenever public prayer is mentioned

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This dude is obviously showboating as the scripture describes. There’s no reason to go out on the middle of the field and kneel other than “look at me!”

        It also doesn’t help that he peer pressured his students into doing the same.

      • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It may not be a prohibition against public prayer (though Jesus goes on to say that when you pray you should do so in an inner room of your own home), but it is absolutely an admonition about exactly the behavior of this coach, who would go kneel in the middle of the field and pray for show.

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s not a sin. It won’t land you in hell. But I would say it’s a prohibition, if you take into account that it’s said by literally god.

          • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m not steeped in theology but I thought acting against one of God’s prohibitions is what a sin is. What distinguishes the two?