My Sweet Lord

Since we’re on the matter of religion, Clare asked me if I’d heard Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney Jesus-talking in the wake of his team winning the NCAA D-I football championship against Alabama.  Swinney appears to be one of those Christians who sees the Almighty dictating the good things that happen in life.  My daughter begs to differ, and she is a religious person.

Maybe so many Americans have become so secular that they can’t see the difference between an evangelical Christian and a Roman Catholic; an Orthodox and a Reform Jew; a Shiite and a Sunni Muslim.  That would explain a lot.  But for anyone wondering, different faiths within respective religions can be as different as night and day.  (And if you don’t know the difference between a faith and a religion, you should be able to find it on Google.)

At the risk of repeating myself, we faced this problem in softball whenever Elmhurst played Wheaton College, an evangelical school that counts the Rev. Billy Graham among its alumni.  Every year Elmhurst players were “invited” to pray with Wheaton players; nobody ever turned down the invitation as far as I could see.  I also never saw an Elmhurst player lead the assembled teams in prayer.  That would risk a Catholic being in charge, and evangelical Wheaton hasn’t always felt warmly towards its fellow Christian denomination.  Why, we pray to saints, which in some circles—including Wheaton past if not present—qualifies as idolatry.  I once suggested to the Elmhurst coach that we bring along a statue of St. Francis to the prayer circle and see what happened.  So, you can see how religious people might not rally around Coach Swinney.

From what I can tell, Swinney wears his faith on his sleeve but doesn’t wield it like a club.  As far as I know, none of his players has ever complained about being coerced into praying or been kicked off the team for his religious beliefs, or lack thereof.  That’s two points in Swinney’s favor.  He also seems to run a clean program, guilty of no worse an NCAA violation than Facetiming a high school player too soon.  As long as Clemson players don’t break the law and their coach doesn’t require proof of the “right” faith in order to play, may Coach Swinney enjoy his championship.