Boise State coach should weigh Idaho history when invoking Christianity

Yahoo

18-05-2025

Boise State University head football coach Spencer Danielson has brought his team considerable success.
His players seem to respect and admire him, with good reason. He promotes good character and hard work at least as well as he prepares players to win.
He has been criticized, including by this board, for his excessive expressions of his Christian faith in his capacity as a public university's employee.
As the Idaho Statesman's Shaun Goodwin reported, the criticisms from outside don't seem to be shared by those on the inside — members of the team, their parents and others.
That doesn't mean his possible encroaching of the separation of church and state should be taken lightly.
'Coach D, he's an amazing human, and religion is a huge part of him, and he doesn't force it upon anybody,' long snapper Mason Hutton told Goodwin.
But another thing is clear: If Danielson were not acting as a Christian leader to his players, he would not be permitted this freedom for very long.
To test this, ask yourself a question: What if Danielson led the athletes in Muslim prayer or quoted from the Quran in TV interviews? What if he led them in Hindu worship? What if he repeated passages from ardent atheist Richard Dawkins?
The answer is obvious: It would not be tolerated for a second. Idaho lawmakers would call for him to be fired and likely ax college budgets. There would be outrage, and then some, from the state's growing far-right population.
Danielson does not operate in a vacuum, and the state of Idaho has a very ugly history of religious intolerance. When the state was founded, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were not allowed to vote, hold office or serve on juries.
That was a long time ago, but there are plenty of contemporary examples, like the repeated efforts to demonize Idaho's refugees because some of them are Muslim.
The Idaho Legislature begins each day with a prayer, invariably a Christian one.
There was an exception a decade ago, when leaders of the then-more moderate Idaho Senate decided to embrace ecumenicism by allowing a Hindu cleric to give the prayer — in a country founded on freedom of religion. In response, Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, as far-right a senator as could then be found, who would find herself a relative centrist today, denounced Hinduism as a 'false religion with false gods.' Not to be outdone, Sen. Steve Vick accused Hindus of 'worshiping cows.'
The following year, members of the Legislature invited Pastor Shahram Hadian to give a talk called 'The True Face of Islam,' a hate-filled rant attacking members of the world's second-largest religion. Also that year, lawmakers killed a bill that allowed interstate collection of child support payments under the bizarre theory that it would cause Idaho to be governed by Sharia.
That was a decade ago. Today, things are different. Now, it is inconceivable that far-right legislative leaders would allow a Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim religious leader to give the opening prayer. Now, bills are introduced to require all public school students to read the King James Bible at length.
Add all that up, and there's a clear message being sent to any non-Christian in Idaho: Here, the official religion is Christianity.
Here, if you are something else, you may be tolerated or you may be persecuted. The one thing you will never be is equal.
Danielson is not responsible for this history, but he operates within it. He carries a special obligation to ensure that non-Christian players and potential recruits can be assured that they will be treated as equals. Thankfully, that appears to be what he is doing.
As Danielson said: 'There are guys on our team that are Christian, there are guys on our team that are LDS, there's guys on our team that are Muslim, there's guys on our team who at this point in their life want nothing to do with religion.'
Given that, isn't it reasonable that, from time to time, the team would be given readings and inspirational passages from the Book of Mormon and the Quran, as well as critiques of religious belief? And perhaps they are; Danielson would not be interviewed specifically for Goodwin's story.
There is no doubt that Danielson is well-intentioned. There is no doubt he is striving to be a good coach and a good mentor.
But he is also a state actor. He is the highest-paid employee of Idaho's largest public university. It is incumbent upon him not to cross lines.
And he has considerable personal power over his players' futures. He decides when and if they will play, who starts, and — with colleges now paying players — he may also be responsible for how they are compensated. He is something very akin to his boss.
He should realize that when he says things like, 'It will be based on giving Jesus the glory. … If people don't like that, don't come here.'
That could mean some very good, upstanding and talented teenagers might think they are not welcome at Boise State if they don't want to give Christ the glory.
Statesman editorials are the opinion of the Idaho Statesman's editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Greg Lanting, Terri Schorzman and Garry Wenske.