Auburn Coaches Draw Legal Fire from Powerful Atheist Group Over Spontaneous Mass Baptism
By Jack Davis,
Auburn University has been taken on a finger-wagging trip to the atheist woodshed after a Tuesday “Unite Auburn” event turned into a mass baptism. The event began with a worship service but morphed into a mass baptism after one student wanted to be baptized, according to Fox News. What started out as a single baptism turned into about 200 students being baptized.
Alabama @GovernorKayIvey fired away at the Freedom from Religion Foundation (@FFRF) Friday, blasting the group for “misleading and misguided” objections to religious activity at Alabama colleges, including @AuburnU Coach Hugh Freeze baptizing students.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation was less impressed and sent a sternly worded letter of reprimand targeting Freeze, head baseball coach Butch Thompson and head basketball coach Bruce Pearl, according to WVTM-TV.
FFRF staff attorney Chris Line said this crossed a major line.
“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,” he said. “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,” he said.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey held as firmly as a defensive line in her social media reply.
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. — Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey)
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