Jun 07 2007
Breaking News—I can’t believe I’m agreeing with liberal professors
[From Christian Post]
More than 100 faculty members at Iowa State University have signed a petition opposing the football coach’s plan to make a chaplain an official member of the team staff.
Coach Gene Chizik, hired last November, wants to hire a chaplain who would be paid by private donations. ISU athletic director Jamie Pollard supports the plan because he contends student-athletes are under a lot of pressure and need access to spiritual guidance.
“Are you going to have counseling for Jewish students? Muslim students? There’s no such thing as one religion or one version of Christianity,” said Dr. Hector Avalos, a professor of religious studies at ISU.
Read about it here.
[From me]
As much as I hate to agree with the professors, they make a valid point. What if the coach was a Muslim and brought in a Muslim Chaplain? I wouldn’t want that either. My brother-in-law, David was on staff with Athletes in Action (part of Campus Crusade for Christ) for many years in Columbia, SC. Lou Holtz made David his chaplain for the Gamecocks his first year there but he wasn’t paid by USC. David raised his own support though Athletes in Action.
I don’t think we can have it both ways. I’m trying my best to be consistent.  I think it is great that Coach Chizik is open to a Godly influence on his team, I just don’t think it should be a state sponsored position.
What do you think?
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11 responses so far
I think it could be done, but it would be very difficult and you’d have to be very careful of what you say. The chaplain would have to know enough about any religion he was likely to find on his team to provide counseling, and whenever he addressed the team as a whole, anything he said would have to be rather agnostic. It seems like someone who personally holds agnostic views would be ideal (but then, what’s the point, right?). One wrong word, and Huffington Post and Secular Humanist Hourly do pretty much the same thing as Focus on the Family and NND did to that hippie psychologist.
PS: Nice renovation
Geekwad,
I’m glad you like the new site. I personally couldn’t be the type of chaplain that had to be a Muslim to Muslim and a Jew to the Jews and so forth. If I were ever a Chaplain for a sports team I would be exactly who I am. That is what I would expect from a Chaplain from another faith. For that reason I’m against State supported Chaplains. I believe I’m being consistent.
I’m with you on this, too. Any way you slice it, the gummint don’t need to be messin’ with religion. We can’t claim the constitution mandates hands off the church and then expect them to get involved in our terms, anyway.
I’m w/ you too, Kevin! I think it is great to have a chaplain, but he needs to paid in the same way your bro-in-law was. As a Youth Pastor, I worked w/ AIA & they are great!
By the way - love the new look!
Your response is exactly right, IMHO. I have served Southern Baptist churches for slightly over 20 years now, and at every one of them, I have heard comments lamenting how schools, government, etc. are now closed to prayer and Christian witness. And I have consistently told people that they are simply closed to government support of either. For instance, the Supreme Court did not remove prayer from schools; they removed government-mandated “sectarian” prayer–as long as there are math tests, there will be prayers in the schools (seriously–as long as there are Christian students & teachers, there will be prayer). If prayer has to be over a loudspeaker to be effective, what does that say about the power of our God? A few school systems have tried to get around this by having devotional speakers representing different religions. I read of one in Virginia, near Richmond, that had a Christian minister, a Jewish rabbi, and a Muslim imman come and speak. And after that–they were sued by a Wiccan (witch!) who demanded equal time. When a Gideon whinned about not being able to distribute Bibles (KJV of course) on school campuses in the US, but they could in Russia, I replied that if they were allowed to do so, the schools would have to allow distribution of just about anyone else’s scpritures. In fact, if you went by majority vote, I am told there are school districts in some areas (northern Virginia for one) where Muslims are a majority. Wonder what they’d insist on distributing? I’d much prefer no scripture distribution to the distribution of “all” scriptures. Let the church do the church’s work, don’t give the responsibility away to government.
Anyway, so much for my rant. A chaplain who has to be chaplain to all faiths is a chaplin of no faith. I remember being told, years ago by a professor in seminary, that in the US Military Chaplaincy, there was one small Christian group whose chaplains were paid by their denomination rather than by the military (was it the Brethren? I’m not sure). They did this to make sure their chaplains were not put into the position of trying to serve two masters, God and mammon. I don’t know if it’s still done, or how successsful it was, but I think they had the right idea.
John Fariss
Couldn’t agree more. That’s why the army provides chaplains from all sorts of religous backgrounds, and why it’s better to let private religious groups on campuses do what they do best.
Great new look, Kevin.
And I couldn’t agree more.
As a side note, Lou Holtz is a Christian, I guess? Catholic, I suppose? My last memory of Lou Holtz was his final regular season game vs. Clemson. One player from my church was on the Clemson team. And they brawled. Except for a local high school bball fight I experienced first-hand, that was the wildest brawl I’ve ever seen! Those guys beat the living snot out of each other! A moment Lou Holtz won’t forget…
Another reason football teams need chaplains.
John Farris is right…we can’t have it both ways.
Separation of church and state is important and I’m afriad many Baptist have forgot that. God doesn’t need a vocal prayer…in fact I believe he much prefers a heart felt silent one. The SBC no longer supports the Baptist Joint Committee which was is a mistake in my opinion. But then there are a lot of things the SBC no longer stands for.
I also agree with Mr. Farris. Most people in this country have forgotten the reason for separation of church and state. That goes along with the idea of prayer in schools. Anyone can say a prayer - you just can’t force others to say your “kind” of prayer. What would happen if our “christian” child was FORCED to participate in a “jewish” or “muslim” prayer (even though we’re all praying to God, just different interpretations)?? What if your child was forced to pledge alligence to another country, like military stationed somewhere other than the U.S.? This is serious stuff to consider.
I’m with you in this Kevin. The school shouldn’t have to pay for a chaplain of any stripe.
When I was doing CPE, they told us this. “We can’t be everyone’s minister. If you’re not able to perform the function they need, then call someone who can.” Since, I mostly just did grief counseling in the hospital, this didn’t come up often. But, there were times that I called a church, or some other religious group, trying to find someone to fulfill a religious duty that I could not do. I could not, would not, be a mormon counselor.
Tim Dahl