Freedom From Religion Foundation calls for the removal of Auburn team chaplain

One group wants Auburn University to fire its football team chaplain.

The organization says that several chaplains are de facto employees, but says it doesn’t matter if they aren’t, because even if chaplains have totally unofficial roles, they enter unconstitutional territory because of the “coercive” power held by football coaches.

Chette Williams has worked with the Tigers since 1999.

At least 15 universities were sent letters from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, so responses from more of these will likely be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

“Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to represent the views of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and nonbelievers)”, the FFRF said in its letter.

Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisana State, Missouri, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Florida State, Mississippi, Wisconsin and Clemson were also mentioned in the FFRF report.

Only 54 percent of college students are self-identified Christians, FFRF says in a report released this week, yet football team chaplains are always Christian and typically evangelical.

“We strive for accuracy, to be sure, and if it’s not accurate that’s not what we want to be portrayed”, said Andrew Seidel, FFRF’s staff attorney. Other universities paid chaplains for their services, including the University of South Carolina, which has a policy prohibiting such payments.

Coaches at publicly funded universities are forbidden from personally inviting chaplains to work on campus – a violation of the separation of church and state guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Most Auburn football players and coaches gather in a large circle at midfield and pray before games.

“I tell them or our position coaches will: ‘We have worship on Sunday, ‘” Freeze told The Washington Post in 2014. While he is not an official employee (he receives a salary from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes), Williams is described as virtually indistinguishable from school employees since he nearly always wears Auburn clothing, travels with the team, and has an on-campus office.

“If players really do need some sort of counseling and that is what universities are employing these chaplains for that they should go get a counselor, maybe a sports psychologist and hire that person who can then help and counsel every player without regard to their religion and imposing a particular religion on that player”.

Not all of the 25 universities addressed have responded so quickly, though.

The FFRF claims Auburn “refused to provide any records” and “ceased all contact” with the organization on April 10.

The organization requested similar documents from the University of Alabama, but the request has not been fulfilled.