Last week a state district judge said cheerleaders at Kountze High School in East Texas could continue to put together biblically inspired banners for their school’s football games, at least for the rest of this season. A lawsuit challenging the banners is set for trial next summer. The outcome of that trial might prohibit the banners next year and beyond, but for now the Kountze Lions can still run through the cheerleaders’ big paper banners as they take the field.
In various news reports, the cheerleaders have said the idea to add Bible verses to their banners came to them while they were at summer cheer camp. They wanted to do something different, something more inspirational than the traditional “Pluck the Eagles” or “Whip the Warriors” or “Snap the Dragons.” They decided the Bible would be a great source for inspirational quotes and agreed to take turns picking each week’s verse.
I don’t know if there was any parental push behind the cheerleaders’ Bible banners, but surely someone supervising the girls knew this would generate controversy. When, over the past 50 or 60 years, has something involving God, the Bible and public schools not generated controversy?
Whether controversy is what a parent or the cheerleaders wanted, it’s what they inevitably got. An atheist group, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, objected to the banners; the school superintendent, on the advice of the district’s attorney, banned them; the town rallied with signs and banners of their own; T-shirts were printed; Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott reached out to grab their share of the attention; the courts intervened; a trial awaits.
The verses the cheerleaders have chosen thus far should be familiar to anyone who even vaguely remembers anything about their high school’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes:
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. - Philippians 4:13
But thanks be to God which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 15:57
If God is for us, who can be against us? - Romans 8:31¹
And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. - Hebrews 12:1²
The day after the cheerleaders were told they could keep their banners, the Kountze Lions played the undefeated and district-leading Newton Eagles. The banner for last Friday night’s game (shown below under construction) came from Luke 18:27: “And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Again inspirational and, possibly, a sly commentary on the controversy surrounding the banners.
The Lions entered their game against Newton with a 5-1 record. The Lions are not a perennial high school football power and are unused to winning records. They finished each of the past three seasons with only three wins and haven’t made the playoffs in 40 years.
But they started this season strong, going 4-0. Their first loss came Oct. 5 when the Woodville Eagles beat them 18-16. It was a heartbreaking loss, but the Lions bounced back Oct. 12 to beat the Warren Warriors 48-0.
Then came Newton, like a swarm of hornets before the Israelites. If anyone was thinking there was something to the banners, the game with Newton could only have raised doubts. Newton humbled the Lions 64-10 - declawed and tamed them, to use the language of traditional football banners.
Kountze is now 5-2. Tonight the Lions play the East Chambers Buccaneers. The Buccaneers also are 5-2. It’s a pivotal game for both teams.
If Kountze loses tonight - loses for the third time in four weeks - it might be time for the cheerleaders to go Old Testament on their banners to save the season and the Lions’ hopes of making the playoffs. Forget mining feel-good quotes from the New Testament; another loss and it’s time to bring it by calling on the God who would send bears to maul children for making fun of Elisha’s bald head (see 2 Kings 2:23-24). A few of the more mild possibilities:
I will send my fear before thee. - Exodus 23:27
The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee. - Deuteronomy 28:21
Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity. - Ezekiel 9:10
Break them with a rod of iron; dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. - Psalms 2:9
Go Kountze! Tonight, let East Chambers know that the righteous are indeed bold as a lion. Sink the Buccaneers!
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¹Obvious answer: the other team.
²The Kountze cheerleaders have chosen verses that are a mix of translations from the King James Bible and other Bibles. The King James version of this quote is superior, as most King James versions are: “And let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”