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Sports Illustrated explains how SCOTUS ruling upholding HS football coach's right to pray on-field could erode 'a bedrock of American democracy'

It’s SCOTUS decision time. So, naturally, Sports Illustrated is there to break it down for us.

They’re specifically interested in the case of public high school football coach Joe Kennedy, who walked out onto the field at a game one night and dropped to his knees in prayer, by himself. According to Sports Illustrated, a ruling in his favor could singlehandedly erode a bedrock of American democracy:

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Kennedy insisted then and maintains now that he didn’t want any attention. That he desired only to pray, by himself, briefly, right there, as he had done after every game for eight seasons until the school told him that fall he had to stop. And that, despite his leadership role overseeing impressionable teenagers, his actions weren’t intended to coerce anyone.

His opponents say his intentions don’t matter, and, if they did, this scene was his creation, anyway. Kennedy had spent those previous six weeks conducting multiple interviews that exacerbated his conflict with the school. Two weeks before the game, he had retained First Liberty, the powerful Christian conservative law firm, in his burgeoning legal battle against the district. And he intensified the spotlight’s glare before kickoff with a pregame Facebook post, announcing a big night upcoming. In signing off, he asked for prayers.

He asked for prayers? Why wasn’t he locked up right then and there?

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Regardless, the coach makes for an unlikely figurehead in these legal theatrics. He was aimless for most of his 53 years. For decades, he wasn’t religious at all, and he isn’t overtly so now. He never followed football all that closely. And yet, he is now at the center of a seven-year legal conflict that started with that covenant—to pray after every game. That morphed into a controversy, then a circus, then a lawsuit centered on the First Amendment and its clauses. That broadened into a political brawl. That widened into a culture-war cudgel. And that wound through the court system, until case No. 21-418 landed on the docket for the Supreme Court of the United States.

Kennedy’s life is now part of the public domain, an emblem to be viewed, utilized and manipulated for others’ aims. He’s a human embodiment of a country that’s deeply divided; a religious movement that’s surging with momentum, even as organized religion becomes increasingly less popular; and, most of all, a powerful right-wing machine many say is employing a timeless division tactic: us vs. them. All morphed a man’s unremarkable existence into an extraordinary one and imbued Kennedy with elusive, far-reaching purpose. He’s no longer just a man. He’s now a symbol, for what his supporters term “religious freedom.”

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“What his supporters term ‘religious freedom.'” So … religious freedom, then.

That is effectively what Sports Illustrated is attempting to argue.

It means whatever the hell Sports Illustrated wants it to mean.

But we do not think it means what Sports Illustrated thinks it means.

We’d be embarrassed for Sports Illustrated if this were a one-off for them, but they’ve been playing around in the political kiddie pool for several years now and clearly haven’t learned their lesson. So that’s on them.

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The First Amendment even extends to Sports Illustrated. They have the right to make complete asses of themselves as often as they like. Which seems to be pretty often these days.

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Maybe someone should pray for Sports Illustrated.

Pray that they get their priorities straight.

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