I recently attended a high school football game to lend my support to my nephew in his role as a player for the home team. It was a cool, crisp fall evening, the stuff of what forged anthracite football and the rivalries which nurtured great athletic competition on the fields where they play. The national anthem was performed and then a prayer was offered in keeping with the tradition and values of the home team. There was a banner in front of the visiting team band which read: “Jesus loves us for free.”

My initial impact to the message was that Jesus loves everyone for free. Historically, the goal of all religion is to garner an accumulation of wealth to sustain its mission objectives and gain followers to foster and cultivate assets to further its own ends. The distinction here is that religion plays absolutely no role in an individual’s faith. Faith is a gift and is given to those whose hearts are open to the everlasting grace of God’s love.

First amendment rights guarantee the right to say whatever we want provided it does not slander or compromise the character of any person, place or thing in an attempt to inflict deliberate malice. I was always taught that we can conduct our expression within the rules of law, or at the very least, a modicum of civility. The slogan the visitors were attempting to convey was that students who attend a private school which offer religious values are paying for it. Yes, indeed! The parents and guardians of the students who attend a private Catholic school do pay for it. In addition to tuition and sacrifices that these families make for their children, they also pay the taxes that fund the rights of the visiting students to attend a public school and hoist a banner on the playing field of the home team that expresses a total disregard to those values the students and families proudly sacrifice and ascribe.

The changes in the public social dynamic with leaders who prevaricate and instill hostility to truth can be one of the constituents inflicting the deterioration of civil discourse. It is my understanding that this public school was ranked 467 out of 498 school districts in the commonwealth as published in the Pittsburgh Business Times in 2012. I would suggest to the visiting team that to send a real message, do it in the classroom no matter where it happens to be. Perhaps giving thought to something may be a start to get that ranking up a bit. Jesus may love you for free, but as you should have recognized: the home team are taxpayers who subsidize your education and football team.

Respectfully,

TJ McCall

Summit Hill