Auburn coaches’ role in prayer event draws fire from atheist group

football coach Hugh Freeze, who formerly helmed the squad at Liberty University, the nation’s largest evangelical Christian school, baptized one of his players that night.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which claims a mission “to protect” church-state separation, objected to Mr. Freeze’s role in the baptisms and said it received “numerous reports” that he,basketball coach Bruce Pearl and baseball coach Butch Thompson “actively promoted” the event to students. “While student athletes are free to pray, either individually or as a group, university staff members should not be leading, participating in or encouraging students to engage in religious exercises,” the group said in the letter.

Freedom from Religion Foundation staff attorney Christopher Line, who wrote what he called a “warning letter” to university President Christopher B. Roberts, said the group did not object to’s renting the meeting space for the event or with the students attending or having the baptism afterward. “Our main issues revolve around the three coaches promoting the event and many times seeming like they’re doing it through their position as coaches,” Mr. Line said in a telephone interview Thursday. Such endorsements, he said, made it seem as if “Unite

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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