CHEERLEADERS’ LAWSUIT SENT BACK BY A HIGHER AUTHORITY

In 2012, cheerleaders in Kountze, a small town about 95 miles northeast of Houston, brought some real religion to the religion that is Texas high school football by painting Bible verses on the large paper banners players run through as they take the field. In forsaking the traditional “Sink the Pirates!” or “Snap the Dragons!” the cheerleaders begot a national stir.

The Texas Supreme Court punted the case back to the Ninth Court of Appeals last week to decide whether the banners violate the First Amendment. The state’s Republican leaders, ever eager to reach for attention from the case, and with plans to make religious liberty a top issue during next year’s legislative session, rejoiced.

The cheerleaders argue that because they used private donations to pay for the banners and decided for themselves which biblical phrase to use on each one, the banners represent private speech and thus are protected by the First Amendment. They further argue that under the First Amendment, the school district, as a government entity, cannot stop them from exercising their religion.

Either the cheerleaders are school-endorsed participants in a school activity — which is how everyone sees them — and thus subject to school district rules and constitutional prohibitions against the government endorsement of one religion over another, or they are individuals whose speech and religious views are no more privileged than the views of anyone else. The cheerleaders want it both ways.

The Kountze Lions have now played four seasons since the controversy began. The Texas Supreme Court’s decision last week prompted me to look up Kountze’s record for the first time since I wrote a tongue-in-cheek column in ear- ly November 2012 urging the cheerleaders to put aside the feel-good New Testament passages they had been using and turn instead to the fear and wrath of the Old Testament. The Lions were on a losing streak in 2012 and needed a spark to salvage a possible winning season and playoff berth — which would have been Kountze’s first after 40 years of wandering in the playoff wilderness. The cheerleaders needed to bring it on, I wrote. It was time for the Lions to take the field like bears sent to maul the children who mocked Elisha’s bald head. They needed to win a game.

But no. The Lions lost both their final games and finished the 2012 season with a 2-5 district record. It’s unclear how often the school’s cheerleaders — the group who first created the banners would have graduated two or three years ago — still use the Scripture-based banners, but I can report that the Lions enjoyed a 4-3 district record in 2013 and 2014 and finally made the playoffs each year — alas, only to be blown out in the first round both times. The Lions reverted to their losing ways this past season, winning only two games.

From the facetious to the sincere, another suggestion, repeated: Cheerleaders, the lawsuit filed in your name will play out however it will play out. Forget it. Teach the adults who are using you to advance their own political agendas a soft lesson. Start the 2016 season with a banner quoting Matthew 6:6: “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” Then dedicate yourself to putting the fun back in your banners. Embrace the lower-case spirit that should animate football games. God is best kept with you, not by turning His word into football inanity.