And what you're saying is wrong. Accommodation is not endorsement.
I completely disagree. There are some similarities and differences between the two situations I discuss. The similarity is that neither circumstance was a violation of the establishment clause. The difference, is in the way the university handled the situations publicly, and the public reactions. I'm talking about Coach Jones' statement in the press, and the request by the university officials to schedule a football game after sunset on Yom Kippur.
One instance has nothing to do with the establishment clause, in that the person had not actually done anything except make a verbal statement. He did not actually interact with players, and he did not actually act in any way advocating a particular religion other than to make a statement, which could have been easily redacted publicly on his own and corrected/monitored behind closed doors.
In formally requesting that the American Conference schedule a UCONN home football game to accomodate a particular religion, the university officials most definitely did act in a way that "appears to endorse" a particular religion - as stated by president Herbst in her public statements about Coach Jones. The esteemed businesslawyer has stated that there is no precedent that such scheduling action is in direct violation of the establishment clause, so in this instance as well, the university did nothing wrong, and there was no violation, just as Coach Jones was not in violation. Coach Jones had the potential to be in violation, and there was no reason to think that it would not be handled by university officials within normal functioning and monitoring.
The difference between the two situations was simple - complaints, and the university public response.
Culturally, there was no reason for a guy like me to complain that the game was moved, at the time, becuase contrary to what the clearly ignorant responses on this thread to me have been, I'm actually quite respectful of other people's religious beliefs. It's good when people can realize humor in life, and my comments about certain religions (both Christianity and Judaism) have been light. The only reason I bring it up now, is to point out inconsistency and perhaps hypocrisy - which is a strong word - but definitely inconsistency.
But culturally, in CT, there were complaints to what Coach Jones said, and how it was handled in the media, by the university was completely unnecessary, and borderline inappropriate IMO, because of the conflict that is evident in the statement, based on the situation around the Maryland v. UCONN home game scheduling.
I knew that this subject matter would bring out strong responses. No doubt about it - that's why I would have preferred talkign about sweater puppies.
The reality here, is that a good man, Coach Jones, who is just trying to make a living for himself and support his family as a football coach, felt the need to leave a secure job, at a very inopportune time of year for football coaches to change jobs, and left the university, for whatever reasons, and it's hard to imagine that the backlash, and public scrutiny he was put under by his superiors was a big part of it, when he could have simply handled the situation himself publicly.
Everyone makes mistakes, and I think Susan Herbst made a mistake here in handling this situation, and it's not a reach for me, to believe that a good guy has left the football program because of it, contrary to what her public statement says about tolerance.
You learn, live and move on. I swear on what I believe, and I do believe in a power in the universe that is totally beyond our comprehension, that we interact with, and effects us every day in our daily life, that I will not comment on this again.