After weighing legal options, Boise State says pastor still will travel with football team
Boise State University plans to find alternative ways to pay the travel costs for a pastor associated with the football team — starting with President Marlene Tromp paying for his travel to this week’s Mountain West championship game.
As the Idaho Statesman first reported Wednesday, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Tromp on Nov. 25 asking the publicly funded university to terminate the football chaplaincy, arguing that it is a constitutional violation of the separation of church and state.
Pastor Mark Thornton did not travel with the Broncos to their game last week at Wyoming while the university explored its legal rights regarding the matter, Sherry Squires, Boise State’s deputy associate vice president, told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview Friday.
“We needed to take time to see what our options were. We never at any point had any intention of not allowing Thornton to be connected to our football team,” Squires said. “We just have to do that in ways that are appropriate for a public university.”
Tromp has since committed to personally pay for Thornton’s travel to the Mountain West championship game against San Jose State on Saturday in Las Vegas.
The university has also set up a fund — called the Free Exercise Fund — to pay for Thornton’s travel to football games. The university said Thornton previously traveled on charter transportation with the team.
“If another student-athlete came to us and said: ‘This is my spiritual advisor and I would very much like this person to be at the game with me,’ if that person pays their way, that also would be allowable,” Squires said. “We’re trying to serve our students ultimately, and address their overall well-being. We just had to pause briefly to figure out what the legal requirements were and how we could move forward in a way that protected the religious expression for all of our students.”
Thornton’s role came under scrutiny after a Deseret News story on a postgame prayer that featured many of the players from the Boise State and BYU football teams on Nov. 6.
“I was present on the field when our Bronco football team and the BYU Cougars knelt to pray together after a very intense game,” Tromp wrote in a statement provided by the university. “I was so moved by the players’ ability to reach across a divide to one another in a difficult time. We need more love in the world — especially with all the crises we’ve faced this year — and this was a sure sign of it. I will always support Pastor Thornton, who has been a generous friend and spiritual adviser to me as well.”
Boise State said Thornton will continue to join the team on the sidelines, attend away games, hold chapel the evening before each game, join student-led prayers before and after each game, lead weekly Bible studies and be available to student-athletes who want to pray with him and seek his counsel.
“We seriously evaluated the constitutional considerations related to this matter, our legal team made an appropriate response, and we remain committed to protecting all student-athletes’ individual rights under the Free Exercise Clause, including access to Pastor Thornton,” the university said in an emailed statement. “Boise State University unequivocally supports and will fiercely defend our students’ right to the free exercise of religion. It’s shameful that parties external to the university are using a photo of student-athlete prayer as an opportunity to attempt to interfere with our student-athletes’ constitutional right to freely practice the religion of their choosing.”
The university also provided a statement from Thornton.
“I’m there for the university and love Boise State,” Thornton said. “President Tromp has long expressed her gratitude for my support for the team, and I will always be there for them. I feel my influence in their lives helps them grow.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 4:56 PM.
