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Iowa State University (ISU) football coach Gene Chizik promised the university’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes last April that he would request permission to hire a chaplain for the football team. Chizik suggested he wanted to take the step because of his Christian beliefs and relationship with Christ.
ISU Athletic Director Jamie Pollard agreed with the plan, saying the school should provide a “spiritual guide” for student athletes.
The proposal, however, raised red flags with faculty and church-state separation advocates who said it would violate the Constitution’s ban on government-endorsed religion. Four faculty members started a petition urging ISU President Gregory Geoffrey to reject the proposal. It garnered signatures from over 130 faculty members.
The university’s Iowa State Daily now reports that the proposed chaplaincy has been replaced with a plan to hire a “life skills assistant” for the football team. The ISU Athletics Council approved the new position on Monday; it now goes to Geoffrey for his approval.
Ah, but a ruse by any other name still stinks.
ISU Athletics Council Chairman Tim Day admitted that the “life skills assistant” will be “available to meet the faith needs of student athletes, not only those of their particular denomination of faith, and may engage in religious activities with those seeking such engagement outside of team functions.” He also said the position could be “funded by an outside agency,” possibly the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The sponsoring organization would undoubtedly have significant influence over who is hired and how he or she performs the job.
Professor William David, one of the four professors who started the original petition, told the Des Moines Register, “I don’t think that the faculty members who signed the petition are going to be fooled by a semantic distinction about what the position is called.”
ISU’s original plan to hire a team chaplain was clearly unconstitutional. Calling the chaplain a “life skills assistant” just adds insult to injury. All students, not just athletes and certainly not just football players, should have equal and easy access to counseling services.
The university may provide professional and peer outlets, but it may not promote one course over another. ISU students already have hundreds of “life skills assistants” at their disposal. A cursory glance at the university’s Web site shows offices of career, academic, leaning, disability, mental health counseling.
The university also has over 600 student clubs, 40 of which are religious or spiritual. A student wanting for spiritual advice is bound to get her needs met at ISU.
The new “life skills assistant” position is a sham. It is a cheap attempt to push one man’s religion on his players under the guise of serving their “unique” needs. President Geoffrey should reject the proposal.
http://blog.au.org/2007/06/27/a-ruse-by-aThe Army chapliansas well as local chaplains came out of the woodwork and said that Christians needed to fight against the threat of Muslim terrorism. One of the professors at ISU, raised a hug stink about it and demanded that not only did the chaplains (and other Christians make despairaging remarks about Muslims all being terrorists) offer him and his family an apology as well as the Muslim community as a whole.
But also demanded that they never set foot on campus again or he'd file civil action against the college as well as the chaplains individually (and they can actually do that). I can't really recall if he got an apology as I was deployed after that time frame and it fell to the wayside.
But back to my original post and point, it sounds like a McMega-Church is pushing their faith into the atheletic department, a chaplain doesn't need to be appointed or hired to do the job of leading a team "In God or Christ's name" its the coach's responsiblity to lead them or fail. If he can't do it hire someone else who can.
The whole "spiritual advisor" thing just is another way to make the team feel all touchy-feely toward Jesus, come on faith is something you either have or don't have. If you need a chaplain then go to church/ synagoge/ whatever and have them pray/ chant/ sacrifice a chicken/ whatever to make them spiritually happy prior to the game.
Wasting funds on hiring a chaplian/spiritual advisor is a bad call. Those funds should be spent on other educational needs like tutors for the football team or then spent on academic needs instead. If they have enough extra funds to hire a chaplain, then maybe the budget need to be cut on next year football program and given to fund other college programs.