As the Reeltown Rebels were marching through November toward the team’s first state championship game berth in a decade, 26 football players sought spiritual assistance.

But their baptisms on the 50-yard line have exploded into a Bible Belt battle pitting the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation against Alabama Senate hopeful and U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope.

The dispute also shines a light on what appears to be a rising trend in the South of open displays of Christian allegiance and passions on football playing fields and sidelines.

“There is a strong relationship between conservative Protestantism and football at the high school and college level,” said Michael Altman, a religious studies professor at the University of Alabama. “I think the FFRF is doing its best to call attention to a practice it finds unconstitutional by trying to take a local story national. On the other hand, Byrne knows that baptisms and football are the two most popular rituals in Alabama and is using that to boost his profile.”

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‘un-American’

The Byrne-FFRF spat began after the nonprofit group – which routinely calls out public events and practices that it believes violations church-state separations – wrote a letter on Dec. 2 to Tallapoosa County Schools Superintendent Joe Windle requesting his district investigate a Nov. 21 baptism that took place at Nix-Webster-O’Neal Stadium. The baptism was attended by the head football coach and other school staff members, while parents and students looked on.

The FFRF requested that Windle take steps to ensure that future religious rituals do not occur during school-sponsored activities.

Byrne, on Dec. 23, ripped the FFRF in a social media post, lauded Reeltown Coach Matt Johnson, and wrote that “helping bring a person to know Christ should be praised.” Byrne has since labeled FFRF a “radical atheist group” intent on removing “God from every facet of our lives.”

The FFRF, this past week, called out Bryne and said he was “all wet” in defending the baptisms. In a Monday news release, the group asked, “if a coach were ‘helping bring students to know Satan,’ would Byrne still say such actions should be praised, not attacked?”

Byrne, in a statement, said, “I won’t sit back and let them bully Alabamians like Coach Johnson and those young boys for simply living out their faith. This is about protecting the inalienable rights that were granted from God.”

Anne Laurie Gaylor, co-president with FFRF, said her organization was “taken aback by the unprofessional response by Congressman Byrne.”

Byrne, in recent weeks, has highlighted some explosive cultural and social issues as he campaigns ahead of the March 3 Republican primary. He’s vying for a nomination in a crowded field that includes former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville and former Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.

Byrne, for example, has directed ire at Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilan Omar of Minnesota and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Asked why FFRF would respond to a candidate who’s seizing on the issue as campaign fodder, Gaylor responded, “I think it’s an egregious reaction by someone who aspires to the U.S. Senate that they are so ignorant that they would take an oath of office to uphold our Constitution that they don’t realize it’s a secular document. He is the one who is un-American, not us. Why is he running for office?”

‘Life went on’

Politics aside, the FFRF’s involvement in the Reeltown baptism has garnered attention in Tallapoosa County, a small county of around 41,000 residents northeast of Montgomery. The baptisms have been the talk on social media, and the sports editor at The Outlook newspaper wrote a scathing editorial directed at FFRF to “leave Reeltown well enough alone.”

Windle, in an interview with AL.com Thursday, confirmed that he has investigated the incident and found there was no wrongdoing. FFRF’s legal team says that Windle has not responded to their complaint letter.

FFRF’s Dec. 2 letter “insinuates (the baptism) was conducted by the school,” said Windle. “It was not.”

Windle said he knew about the baptism, having spoken with Johnson ahead of time. He said he approved as long as it wasn’t a team requirement for everyone to attend, and wasn’t sponsored by a school employees.

“The coach told me it would happen and I told the coach he couldn’t be involved,” said Windle, who did not attend the baptisms. “He said, “I won’t.’ I was asked if they could do it. I said that I had no problem with it, to be sure they get two pastors to do it and to be sure that they do it and that (Coach Johnson) stay out of it and that’s what we did.”

The baptism, which occurred inside a tub filled with water, was inspired following a prior event that was also held on school property but occurred outside regular school hours. That event involved Rick and Mick Ministries of Birmingham, a duo that bill themselves as contemporary Christian musicians and comedians who host school assemblies as part of their “Attitude Check” program. According to their website, the duo’s goal is to reach the “unchurched,” though they claim their program is “100% secular.” Attempts to reach Rick and Mick Ministries for this story were unsuccessful.

Windle said the “Attitude Check” was held before 66 students at Reeltown and at Tallapoosa County’s other two high schools – Dadeville and Horseshoe Bend, where fewer than 30 students attended.

It was unclear if the assemblies were meant to encourage baptisms, although Windle said that all three high schools had students who “rededicated” themselves or who expressed interest in being baptized.

Windle said that approximately 35 students asked to be baptized. Of those, 26 were football players who requested the baptisms take place on the football field. The other students had their baptisms at their churches, Windle said.

At the time, Reeltown’s football team boasted 9-1 record, and was poised to make a deep playoff run.

“This was a special football year for Reeltown,” said Windle. “You know how communities come together with a football team that goes through the playoffs … it energizes the entire community. These kids have been playing together since they were 6 or 7 years old. The 26 players asked the coach that ‘we’ve spent so much time together on this field, can we be baptized at the 50-yard-line?’ He said, ‘let me think about that.’”

Windle said that Johnson reached out to two local Baptist pastors to meet with the boys individually and make sure “they understood what baptism meant.” The two pastors then “conducted the baptisms and life went on.”

Windle said none of the 26 students had been baptized before. According to data compiled by the Association of Religion Data Archives, 59% of religious adherents in Tallapoosa County are members of the Southern Baptist Convention – by far the largest percentage of those who are religiously-affiliated. Alabama, as a whole, about 46.3% of church-goers are Southern Baptists.

‘Religion-free zone’

An attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter to a high school in south Alabama complaining that the school’s role in the baptism of 18 student football players violated legal standards on separation of church and state. (WC Dawgs Facebook page)

Windle said he doesn’t see any First Amendment violations because the baptisms weren’t sanctioned by the school, and weren’t conducted by public employees. Federal courts have typically ruled that while students are allowed to pray at school, employees at a public school cannot participate in religious activities with students, including football players.

FFRF, in its news release last month, said that students will “perceive” the Reeltown High baptisms as “endorsed by the school” because they occurred on school property with staff members present.

Said Windle, “I didn’t find in my investigation and in talking to students that anyone thought it was school-sponsored,” he said.

“The First Amendment doesn’t convert all public schools into a religion-free zone,” said Windle. “It guarantees a separation of religion and we don’t promote religion in this system. But we are not restricting our students from exercising their right to free speech as a student.”

He continued, “This was all student stuff. As a superintendent, my job is to be a creator of opportunities. Get the opportunities before our schools and students based on our mission and our mission is preparing them for college, career and citizenship. If these kids say ‘I want this opportunity to be baptized on the 50-yard-line,’ I don’t care if they are Catholic, Muslim or Buddhist … in a rural system like ours, we make our facilities available to any organization that wants to use them.”

Windle said that FFRF, in the eight years he’s been superintendent of Tallapoosa County, has sent him “blanket threats and intimidation” letters each year. He said it was the way the group “does business.”

The FFRF, in 2019, repeatedly called out religious rituals occurring at public schools throughout Alabama.

-In June, the group called on Washington County schools in Southwest Alabama to cease participating in religious rituals after 18 student football players were baptized at the school’s football field.

-In July, FFRF sent a letter of complaint to DeKalb County Schools in Northeast Alabama about a “back to school worship service” at Fyffe High School. (Fyffe High School defeated Reeltown by a score of 56-7 in the Class 2A state championship game on Dec. 6 at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium.)

-FFRF generated its most attention for calling out a pregame prayer over a loudspeaker at Opelika High School. The school system followed up by having a moment of silence before home football games.

Gaylor, with FFRF, said the baptisms – such as those that occurred in Reeltown and in Washington County – are increasingly becoming a trend. Baptisms, either overseen or led by football coaches, have occurred in recent years at schools in Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas.

“When we first heard of this, I thought it was a joke,” Gaylor said. “I still think they are, hopefully, on the rare side and are getting publicity because they are so freaky. But it’s a relatively new violation we have encountered that much in the past.”

The FFRF has been involved in high-profile complaints over school baptisms since at least 2013. That year, the group began receiving complaints about baptisms involving Clemson University football players and overseen by head coach Dabo Swinney.

Altman, at the University of Alabama, said he would like to see a judge rule on the baptisms to help clear up any constitutional ambiguity about them.

“Most cases involving religious rituals revolve around the questions of compulsion and coercion,” he said. “So where these student athletes coerced to get baptized? Were powerful school officials involved whose authority might be coercive? I would be interested in having a court rule on it”

‘Demagogue’

But FFRF isn’t the only organization concerned about the latest incident involving the Reeltown baptisms and Byrne’s statements.

Maggie Garrett, vice president for public policy at Americans United for Separation of Church and State – a Washington, D.C.-based organization that tracks laws that might undermine the separation of church and government -- said Byrne “has a fundamental lack of understanding about religious freedom in our public schools.”

“Parents should be able to send their children to a public school without fear that teachers or employees will coerce them into being baptized,” said Garrett. “We wish Rep. Byrne would be as welcoming and respectful of the religious and nonreligious beliefs of all his constituents.”

Frederick Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, a think tank in Massachusetts and a prominent advocate for religious freedom, said he felt it was “unfortunate” that Byrne “thinks it’s OK to demagogue such a sensitive matter.”

“Byrne, himself, says that bringing to know Christ is a gift or a blessing,” said Clarkson. “Maybe so. But that is not what the people hire him to do. It is not the job of public school employees to act as religious vigilantes to influence and indoctrinate children in their care. Children’s religious development is rightfully the province of their parents and the clergy of their own choosing.”

Byrne, in his statement, said that FFRF “can attack me all they want” but that he doesn’t plan to back down from fighting “four our fundamental values like the freedom to exercise one’s faith.”