By Bob Allen
A Georgia school district is investigating whether any laws were broken after a Southern Baptist church posted online video showing football players being immersed in a makeshift baptistery before practice on a high school football field.
Television stations in Macon, Ga., aired video Sept. 1 showing excerpts of video reportedly taken Aug. 17 of a mass baptism posted on YouTube by First Baptist Church of Villa Rica, an 1,100-member congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, Georgia Baptist Convention and Carrollton Baptist Association.
Reports say a full four-minute video, since taken down, showed 18 players and one coach being submerged in a tub of water in a symbolic act professing their faith in Jesus Christ.
The video carried the caption: “We had the privilege of baptizing a bunch of football players and a coach on the field of Villa Rica High School! We did this right before practice! Take a look and see how God is STILL in our schools!”
The Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote the Carroll County School District Sept. 1 describing the baptism video as “an egregious constitutional violation.”
“We request that the District immediately investigate and take action to ensure there will be no further illegal religious events, including team baptisms and prayer, during school-sponsored activities,” the letter complained. “Coaches and school staff should be instructed that they cannot participate in religious activities with students while acting in their official capacity.”
According to the letter, the video shows players and a coach being baptized, presumably by a church representative, while displaying a Bible verse describing baptism as “a step of obedience.” It goes on to show what appears to be coaches and players in a team prayer circle.
“It is illegal for coaches to participate in religious activities with students, including prayer and baptisms,” the letter warned. “Nor can coaches allow religious leaders to gain unique access to students during school-sponsored activities.”
“When baptisms and prayer take place directly before a team football practice, on school property, with coaches’ participation, any reasonable student would perceive these activities to be unequivocally endorsed by their school.”
“I can’t remember another case like this,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Madison, Wis.,-based FFRF, told NBC affiliate 11-Alive. “It’s really misusing the authority of the coach to promote his personal religious agenda.”
Gaylor, whose organization exists to promote the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state and educate the public on matters relating to “non-theism,” said the video depicted players forced to undergo a religious ritual to be accepted on a team.
“Calling it a step of obedience: How are they going to cross their coach?” Gaylor asked. “They have no choice. It’s proselytizing, it’s coercive and it’s not legal in our schools.”
The Carroll County school system gave a statement to media saying officials were “made aware of a situation that took place at Villa Rica High School prior to football practice on August 17th.”
“The District is currently looking into the specifics of this situation and will take appropriate steps to ensure all state and federal laws are followed,” the statement said.