Advertisement

Auburn among schools asked to drop football chaplains

By Alex Butler

AUBURN, Ala., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Many major southern universities welcome a Godly presence in the huddle on Saturdays.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is calling for a change. The organization sent a letter to Auburn president Jay Gogue Tuesday, asking for the Tigers to fire its team chaplain and "abolish the chaplaincy."

Advertisement

The FFRF claims that the religious connection could lead to discrimination.

"...public universities and their employees cannot endorse, promote, or favor religion," the report said. Several college coaches "are converting playing fields into mission fields and public universities are doing nothing to halt this breach of trust."

"Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to represent the views of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and nonbelievers)," the FFRF said in its letter.

"It makes no difference if the chaplain is unofficial, not school-sponsored, or a volunteer, because chaplains are given access to the team as a means for coaches to impose religion, usually Christianity, on their players," the FFRF wrote in its letter. "Under the circumstances, the chaplain's actions are attributable to the university and those actions are unconstitutional."

Advertisement

Chette Williams has worked with the Tigers since 1999. He is also the campus director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), according to Fox Sports.

"Chaplains are common in many public institutions, including the US Congress," Auburn said in a statement. "The football team chaplain isn't an Auburn employee, and participation in activities he leads are voluntary."

Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisana State, Missouri, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Florida State, Mississippi, Wisconsin and Clemson were also mentioned in the FFRF report.

"If the team wants to worship, they want to get together on their own and have their own organized worship, that's totally fine," Andrew Seidel, FFRF's staff attorney, said according to al.com. "We don't have any problem with that. We don't have any problem with them praying in whatever way they see fit, what we have a problem with is the top-down imposition of religion."

Advertisement

Georgia was called "one of the major offenders," by the FFRF. The report cited that the Bulldogs' chaplain, Kevin "Chappy" Hynes saying: "Our message at Georgia doesn't change, and that's to preach Christ and Him crucified, it's to win championships for the state of Georgia and win souls for the Kingdom of God, so we're going to continue down that path."

"The organization claims to include 22,700 members and operates "to promote the constitutional separation between state and church and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism," according to Brandon Marcello of AL.com.

Latest Headlines