Yes, it does make me uncomfortable when Coach Swinney references his faith. And it concerns me as to how he seems to run the program from a faith based ideology. By that I mean I wonder would he hire a person who didn’t have similar religious beliefs? I don’t know if he would or not or if he has or not, but its a concern.
And I would, absolutely, say that to him or anyone else in the Clemson program. Now if I happened to see him out at Bi-Lo, would I march up to him and just say that to him? No, of course not. But if we were in a situation where such a conversation were appropriate, I would not hold back on expressing my views just because of his status and success at Clemson. I doubt that situation will ever occur.
On the morality front, I do not believe that Coach Swinney is purposefully perpetuating a falsehood. I believe he genuinely holds the religious beliefs he claims he does. I do believe he is wrong about those beliefs, but to me there’s a difference between someone knowingly spreading a falsehood and someone who genuinely believes something that happens to be incorrect.
I think there are people of “faith” who aren’t genuine and who are either knowingly perpetuating a falsehood or just don’t care either way, and I think even Christians will admit those people do indeed exist. I don’t think Dabo is one of those people. The sense of morality in terms of not spreading a falsehood is directed primarily at myself. I believe that its a matter of integrity. Again, its not about militantism, I’m not marching up to people in the streets or protesting at churches. I don’t believe that a person who believes differently than me is a bad person, but I do believe that if I stay quiet and let someone I care about live their life based on something I fervently believe to not be true then that makes me a bad person.
Moreover, although I believe Dabo is wrong about the source and reason for many of the values he has, I do share many of those same values. So I can appreciate and respect many of the things he stands for that have nothing really to do with religious beliefs. You don’t have to be religious to believe in hard work, discipline, accountability. You don’t have to be religious to care about helping other people in times of need, to go out of your way to be kind to others.
What do you believe the falsehood to be...that Jesus did not exist or that he is not the Son of God...or both? Or something else?