Atheists Attack Church for Feeding High School Football Players

[Elizabeth619]

A prominent atheist organization is calling for an investigation over reports that a high school football coach in Georgia had several local churches provide pre-game meals for the football team.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which aims to "protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church," recently sent a letter to the superintendent of Walker County Schools requesting that the school board look into the activities of the Ridgeland High School football coach Mark Mariakis.
"Taking public school football teams to church, even for a meal, is unconstitutional," wrote FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel in the letter. "This program is an egregious violation of the Establishment Clause and must cease immediately."
Seidel stated that having school children visit churches and having preachers "present the Gospel of Jesus Christ" is in direct conflict with the protections granted in the First Amendment.
The FFRF explained that the matter was first brought to their attention after a local individual complained about local churches providing meals to the football team before games.
The Walker County School system released a statement acknowledging they have received the letter and are reviewing the claims forth.
Richie White said he was flabbergasted when he found out that an organization had a problem with providing food to kids.
"It would be interesting to see what part of the Constitution we violated by simply offering a meal to fellow Americans," White told Fox News, adding that "these are kids from our area that we do love and we do care about."
White is the youth director for Chattanooga Valley Baptist Church, which is slated to prepare the pre-game meal for the football team in October.
White said several members of the church youth group are on the football team and the pre-game meals have been a longstanding tradition.
"We as Christians don't force our religion on anyone … we're being persecuted because we believe there is a God who created us," White said.
"I don't think there's an equal playing field because we base our lives and our views on the Scripture," he added.

Atheists Attack Church for Feeding High School Football Players

 

[OFM]

that is a bad organization agianist christians be careful of them thier evil.

 

[raf]

dang these atheists seem to hate christians more than muslims. lol

 

[GodlessGirl1]

Wow, is that the worse thing atheists have done? What about all the wars Christianity has caused?

 

[wwjd_kilden]

^ Please don't say that as if people who do not belong to a religion do not start wars....

 

[Elizabeth619]

Wow, is that the worse thing atheists have done? What about all the wars Christianity has caused?

Christianity does not caue war. Reglion in general does not cause war. Mans evil heart causes war. Hate, greed and so on. If you actually knew about the bible, and God(whether you choose to live by it or not) you would know that wars in the bible. Wars against Gods people. God did lead people in to war to prevent evil from prevailing. This does not man all war is acceptable to God, but in cases of self defense to he understands it is sometimes necessary.

Also, when someone commits a violent and unjustifiable act and uses religon as grounds for diong it, then it is WRONG in Gods eyes. Being as you say you "know" why Christians beleive in the bible I figured you would have known that in the bible murder is a sin, but killing is jstifiable in some cases.

People pervert religon all the time. Unfortunately people like you who are ignorant in the scriptures would rather pay attention to those who use Christianity for evil rather than actually learn what Christianity really is. I am guessing you are more content being convinced of false information rather than knowing the truth................... and you call Christians delusional.

 

[Nautilus]

I honestly dont care either way.

 

[raf]

Wow, is that the worse thing atheists have done? What about all the wars Christianity has caused?

What you are saying is sort of biased Looked at Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, Mao Zedong, the leader of Burma, all those guys I believe were atheists and theyre responsible for wars and killing millions.

 

[raf]

Wow, is that the worse thing atheists have done? What about all the wars Christianity has caused?

Also another thing what youre saying is sort of dumb I mean technically all those Crusaders and wars with Christians were by white people. So technically I can say only white people have caused wars, you see how stupid and narrow minded that sounds please learn from my example.

 

[JimJimmers]

What you are saying is sort of biased Looked at Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, Mao Zedong, the leader of Burma, all those guys I believe were atheists and theyre responsible for wars and killing millions.

I was just going to post this! High five!


Plus Lenin, Paul Potts, Nicolae Ceaușescu, and Fidel Castro.

 

[Elizabeth619]

As much as I have enjoyed reading the responses to Godlessgirls post we all know she is here to start trouble. Can we discuss the OP?

 

[nw2u]

Instead of attacking them, maybe they should have provided the food. Guess it was more fun to attack.

And I do get it. They think they are attacking religion.

Too bad someone can't get them to understand they are just hurting fellow human beings?

 

[Elizabeth619]

Instead of attacking them, maybe they should have provided the food. Guess it was more fun to attack.

And I do get it. They think they are attacking religion.

Too bad someone can't get them to understand they are just hurting fellow human beings?

Christians feeding food to football players is not violating anything. The person that complained should come forward and explain as to why this was an issue for them. Looks to me all they wanted to do is start pointless trouble.

 

[Elizabeth619]

Also, many do not understand what "Church and State" means. Atheist groups seem to show little understanding of the Constitution when they try ot force their views on others, and feel religious organizations should stop doing good deeds.

 

[OFM]

i agree with the above post totally.

 

[yode]

There will be a day when atheist will not question weather there is a God. Of course they will be in fire at that point.

 

[Ariel82]

feeding people food is not the same as feeding them the gospel some people just have too much time and hate/hurt in them.. if the aethist offered a meal, the players have the same option to attend or just show up at the game and play. its not like you are required to be at the meal and it saves the team money for paying for they food.

another group would complain if funds were used to take them to a resturant to eat.

kind of makes me sad that people will try and legalize and chain people to prevent them from doing good for others and feeding them.

school is becoming a place were kids are only introduced to capitalist materialistic propaganda

i hope kids learn to think for themselves and critically analysis things and not just swallow it all whole.

you will NOT die if you don't get those shoes....

 

[Elizabeth619]

This particular high school is in a rather small town of less that 4,000 people(my mother actually is from Walker County, and my step cousin teaches at this school). My guess is the church/churches do alot of community services because a large number of the people are members. The best way to get people involved in this is to go to the larger organizations and ask for help. In this case it happened to be a church.

The original artical stated that several members of the football team are involved with the youth group. In a small town like that I am assuming many of the faculty and staff are also involved with this church so in my opinion it is only natural for these people to provide meals if so many people are part of this particular church in the first place.

Also, this meal did not occur during school hours. There is really no violation of the constitution.

 

[JimJimmers]

I suppose if it violated any of the players' personal beliefs to eat food at a church, which I highly doubt, he could bring food with him. Unless the coach forced him to go into the church, there's no issue. Pretty nice of the church to invite an entire football team over. I happen to know that they can put down some serious carbohydrates.

 

[Digital_Angel_316]

Most all higher level sports programs have some sort of chaplain associated with them (at least for a time they did). The issue depends on who's leading whom - is the church leading the foot-a-ball god into the knowledge of Jesus, or is the foot-a-baal god leading the church into Idolatry.

In 1 Corinthians 15:33, the apostle Paul quotes the Greek writer Menander when he writes, “bad company corrupts good morals” (this is the first quotation from Greek literature recorded in the New Testament). The concept, however, was not a new one. In fact, we see the same caution being offered over 1,400 years earlier by Joshua. In Joshua 23, this aging, courageous leader challenges the Israelites to faithfully complete the task at hand of removing the nations from their land, the good land the Lord had given them. In the meantime, they are to be careful not to align with these unbelieving nations, intermarry with them, or worship their false gods.


The same word of caution is advisable today. Believers must remain faithful to the Lord and fully committed to His Word. We must be careful to obey Him will all our hearts, and guard against the enticement of today’s “false gods.”