FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team
Wed, September 27, 2023
Head coach Hugh Freeze of the Auburn Tigers prior to their game against the Samford Bulldogs at Jordan-Hare Stadium on September 16, 2023 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)
AUBURN, Ala. - A Wisconsin-based group of "atheists, agnostics and skeptics" are sending a warning to several Auburn University coaches affiliated with "Unite Auburn."
On Sept. 12, a Christian praise event drew several thousand to Neville Arena on the university's campus less than 25 miles from the Georgia line. About 200 people were baptized following the event.
Atheist group targets Auburn after religious event
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling for all religious activities associated with athletic programs at the university to cease. The foundation says the event and other religious-associated activities violate the Constitution. They go on to say this is not the first time.
"Auburn University is a public university, not a religious one. It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for university employees to use their university position to organize, promote or participate in a religious worship event," FFRF staff attorney Chris Line writes to Auburn University President Christopher B. Roberts. "These ongoing and repeated constitutional violations at the university create a coercive environment that excludes those students who don’t subscribe to the Christian views being pushed onto players by their coaches."
Lead pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, John Pokluda, spoke to the crowd of nearly 4,000. The event also featured Atlanta-based Christian worship group Passion Music and comments from Christian podcaster and bestselling author Jennie Allen.
Following the event, Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze was seen baptizing a player. Basketball coach Bruce Pearl and baseball coach Butch Thompson also attended the event.
The foundation says not only is it unconstitutional, but it is highly inappropriate for "public school employees to direct students to partake in religious activities, or to participate in the religious activities of their students."
"The abuse of power displayed by these coaches shows that Auburn hasn’t changed one bit since we published our 2015 report," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "As coaches, their responsibility lies in guidance on the field, not guiding these students to pews. They should start by firing the team chaplains, whose very presence signals that Auburn University has an inappropriate relationship with Christian evangelists."
Auburn coach Freeze defends ‘Unite Auburn’ event
However, Pearl defended his actions in a report by "The Observer," a local newspaper. He says the after years of hosting a similar event called "Ignite," he, his wife Brandy as well as Chad and Tonya Prewett wanted to do something to help organize the students who were of Christian faith.
"Chad and Tonya Prewett are the ones who absolutely ran with this," Pearl told the local publication. "The idea is simply to have a night of worship, to have two incredible speakers and to allow the students to want to have a closer connection both to God, as well as in the church community."
Following the event, about half the crowd paraded to the Auburn University Ag Heritage Park for baptisms.
Gov. Kay Ivey responds to foundation’s complaints
The governor of Alabama responded to the attack by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Gov. Kay Ivey took to X, formerly Twitter, to write:
"I am proud to stand in support of religious liberty at Snead State Community College and Auburn University.
"As governor, I can assure you Alabama will never be intimidated by out-of-state interest groups dedicated to destroying our nation’s religious heritage."
Gov. Ivey also released a letter she sent to the foundation which calls their complaints about after-hours worship service "misleading and misguided."
"Here in Alabama, we stand with President Whitmore; Coaches Freeze, Pearl, and Thompson; and countless other Alabamians who seek to be true to themselves—and to God—as they live out their lives and seek to do their jobs to the best of their abilities."
Gov. Ivey argued that removing faith from everyday lives is a greater violation.
She also reminded the foundation of the state’s motto: "We dare defend our rights."
"As governor, I assure you that we will not be intimidated by out-of-state interest groups dedicated to destroying our nation’s religious heritage," she wrote in closing.
Atheist group say Gov. Ivey’s supports ‘state-sponsored religious activities’
The Freedom from Religion Foundation calls Gov. Kay Ivey’s rebuke of their complaints "constitutionally off the mark."
The foundation, in a release shortly after Gov. Ivey’s letter in response to the "Unite Auburn" event, wanted to make clear that 20% of Alabamans say they are not religious.
"You are indeed the governor of nonreligious Alabamians and religious minorities, as well as the majority who identify as Christian in some way," FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor write to her
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey listens to former U.S. President Donald Trump speak during the Alabama Republican Party’s 2023 Summer meeting at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel on August 4, 2023 in Montgomery, Alabama.
(Photo by Julie Bennett/Getty Images)
The organization admonished Gov. Ivey for using her platform in voicing support for the event.
"University administrators and coaches are free to express their religious beliefs in their private capacity outside of their role as public officials," FFRF writes. "But it is coercive, inappropriate and unconstitutional for them to push their personal religious beliefs on others, particularly students or subordinates, while serving in their official capacity as government officials."
The foundation referred to Article 1 of the Alabama Constitution, which states:
"[T]hat no religion shall be established by law; that no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect, society, denomination, or mode of worship; that no one shall be compelled by law to attend any place of worship …"
The group argues the religious heritage to which Ivey referred in her letter addressed to them was not part of the thinking when establishing the U.S. Constitution.
"You took an oath of office to ‘support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the state of Alabama,’ not to promote ‘worship,’ to disseminate your personal religious beliefs through your office or to otherwise evangelize," FFRF’s letter reminds the governor in concluding. "Please uphold that oath."
This story is being reported out of Atlanta
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