Last week, I posted about an advice column in the Forsyth County News in Georgia. A woman named Candy A. Westbrook — a.k.a. “Football Mom” — answers questions about the sport and everything tangential to it.

A parent had written to Westbrook worried about a Christian pastor who spoke to her son’s public high school football team. What should she do about it? Westbrook’s response? Don’t worry! You should celebrate that! He’s making kids’ lives better!

So much for separation of church and state.

I wrote this at the time:

There’s obviously a difference between an inspirational speaker and someone shoving Jesus down everyone’s throat. What would Westbrook say about a Muslim imam invited to speak to players? Or an atheist? She never even considers those options because no one else pulls this shit.

I don’t know which one of you decided to ask her that question directly… but someone did it. This was the actual question sent to Westbrook in her most recent column:

I read your recent column on mixing church and state together for the sake of football. Was just wondering if you could answer a quick question for me. If the head coach of a football team had his largely Christian team listen to a Muslim or a Judaist preach their religion as potential “inspiration,” would you accept that coach’s decision as the “freedom to choose” his way of instilling in his players “a moral compass to guide youngsters?”

Thank you, anonymous stranger who asked an obvious question.

I can’t wait to hear her response. This should be good, right? She’s gonna realize her hypocrisy and apologize for her misguided “advice”?

Of course not. First, she denied there was any church/state separation violation at all — which there clearly was — then she told the parent to shut the hell up.

Dear Reader, I appreciate your question and you taking the time to write me, but your first statement is completely incorrect. No one is mixing church for the sake of football. Please reread the column. Apparently, you were confused. I get it. That is easy to do. I tend to reserve this space for real questions, from real parents, who have real concerns surrounding the game of football. I do not answer scenarios or what if’s … but thank you very much for reaching out. I hope you’ll continue to read the columns.

That’s the kind of dodge that would make Kellyanne Conway proud.

She doesn’t answer hypotheticals… even though that’s the whole point of getting advice: If this thing happened, what would you do about it?

How does she know this parent isn’t real? Why does she not think this is a real question? And on what grounds does she just dismiss the idea of church/state separation (or, in her words, “mixing church”)?

And who the hell thought she deserves a regular column in the local paper when she can’t handle fair criticism of her awful advice?

(Thanks to Brian for the link)

