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On August 25th, Christi McEntyre posted a column on all of this, entitled, "Column by Christi McEntyre: Freedom of the majority," which is worth our attention. McEntyre's opening sentences, immediately raise one distracting issue, namely the self-absorption of a certain group of atheists. She begins, "Hi, I’m Christi, and I’m an atheist." In the reader's face, inviting reaction. Especially in the context of Bible Belt Georgia, she starts out seeking to shock and scandalize.
However, McEntyre does go on to raise important points that reflect something more than her personal pique with red state Christianity. She raises especially the question of the relationship of the private beliefs and the public role of Coach Mariakas and all other public school teachers. She writes, "No matter what his or her personal beliefs, a teacher must mentally and emotionally shed the robe of the personal and put on the robe of the public whenever acting in his or her position." She continues, "That is the inherent trust that parents put on public school teachers and coaches – that they will treat every student equally and work hard to give them all the best possible instruction in the task at hand, without any unnecessary interference from personal bias or beliefs." Any overt use of prayer, Bible, or preaching in the classroom or on the football field, she reasons, betrays that trust.
OK. Were things only that simple and clear-cut. One does not simply shed one's personal beliefs and values at the front door of the school building and then put them back on when they leave. Teachers don't cease to be who they believe themselves to be when they teach. Indeed, American teachers share any number of biases, attitudes, and values with McEntyre that a foreign student moving into an American public school can feel oppressive, embarrassing, or unsettling; but she is not asking teachers to shed those things at the door—because they don't bother her. She is an American as are the teachers. It is an American school. It is unrealistic of McEntyre to think that a person of faith who happens to be a teacher is not going to live out her or his faith in the classroom and on the football field.
In her posting, McEntyre objects to the imposing of religion on students partly because it can be embarrassing or uncomfortable or confusing for some students. By that measure, one wonders what teachers can actually do in a classroom because different students are liable to find different things "difficult." Where does one draw the line? When does this concern for what bothers a student become a barrier to teaching and a violation of the rights of the teacher and the other students who are not bothered?
Reading this editorial posting, it is clear that McEntyre is in parting reflecting her own biography, her own distaste for religion, and possibly her own experiences as an atheist student in a Christian-dominated school culture. One can sympathize, but why should the personal discomfort of a student about the religious faith of the teacher trump the teacher's faith? On the face of it, does not the teacher have a right to live out her or his personal faith in the classroom and on the football field?
That being said, McEntyre also raises a deeper question, which people of faith need to pay careful attention to—that is the issue of imposition. There is no question but what an important segment of American Christians are insensitive to the religious sensitivities of others. They "share" their religious beliefs in ways that are felt to be an imposition on others. They talk religion at people. They demand that "non-believers" (including liberal Presbyterians!) conform to their beliefs. There is a thin line between making a student feel uncomfortable and imposing one's religion on the student.
In the fog of controversy, it is difficult to tell whether or not Coach Mariakas has crossed that line or not, but it is an issue worth raising. If the charges leveled against him are true, he seems to have at least skirted that fine line, and it does not hurt to remind him that faith is something to be shared not imposed—and shared with a sensitivity to the fact that not everyone wants to be on the getting end of the sharing. A Christian football coach is a person of power as well as faith, and thus what might seem like faith "sharing" to him or her could well be the imposition of the coach's belief-system on a student, who is a person without power (or of inferior power). We are only faithful to Christ to the degree that we use our faith for the benefit of the other, which means paying close attention to what "the other" feels is good. It doesn't hurt in the least for the coach, the teaching staff, and the administration of the Walker County School System to be reminded of that fact.
