OK, so you’re mad at the Texas Associartion of Private and Parochial Schools for refusing to change the Friday night start time of a state semifinal boys basketball game that was supposed to feature the Robert M. Beren Academy, a Shabbos-observant Modern Orthodox high school in Houston. Well, at least TAPPS has managed to inspire a cross-denominational show of Jewish unity: The new president of the Union for Reform Jews, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, has sent a letter to TAPPS, urging the association to change the time of the game: [[READMORE]]
…Asking the Beren Academy team to choose between observing their faith and participating in a game which they have rightfully qualified for sends the message that TAPPS values the religious convictions of Beren Academy less than other member schools.
Mr. [Edd] Burleson [executive director of TAPPS], I hope you understand the principle at stake here. What message would be sent to these scholar/athletes if they were forced to choose between their faith and their athletic goals? And what a powerful message TAPPS could send by finding an accommodation which would allow Beren to compete. Only the later choice would be true to our shared American heritage of religious freedom.
Allowing Beren to compete would be a slam dunk.
The only problem with this line of argument is… well… TAPPS is making no bones about the fact that its rules were set up to respect the Sabbath traditions — of Christians. And the association sees no reason to make any changes.
Here’s a snippet from the statement TAPPS has posted online:
…When TAPPS was organized in the late 1970’s, the member schools at that time all recognized Sunday as the day of worship. The By-Laws were written to state that “TAPPS would not schedule any competition or activities on Sunday”. At that time, there were no member schools that observed their Sabbath on Saturday.
During the early days of TAPPS, state semi-finals and finals for team sports were scheduled on Fridays and Saturdays. Occasionally, due to the sites available, some games were also scheduled on Thursdays.
Every effort was made to schedule finals on Saturday, since many parents did not work on Saturday and could attend their children’s games. The TAPPS Executive Board, which is the final authority of the association, continues to follow the Constitution and By-Laws. …
Well, in that case… no need to let them play.
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