First, these letter writers would have me believe the prayers brazenly broadcast by devout footballers are only for the safety of the players. I find that hard to believe that, in all that praying, there are no prayers focused on winning the game.

But let us suppose that all the football prayers uttered in this nation are only for the safety of the players. What, then, can we say about God when a player gets hurt? What do we say about the broken legs and arms, the brain concussions, the ripped flesh, the gouged eyes and the very tragic deaths that occur on high school football fields?

Those things are going to happen because football is a brutal game, and every year in America it gets more violent and mean. All the praying in the world could not stop those injuries from happening. It is the nature of the game. If you bang your head against another head long enough, something will break. If you pray before jumping off a cliff, you will still get hurt when you hit the bottom. Wake up, pilgrims. God’s mission is not to save you when you do dangerous stuff.

Further, it is not God’s fault when you get hurt doing something mindless, such as bullfighting or football. Those are the breaks of the game, and no amount of prayer will lower the chances of injury. So, don’t talk to me about safety. Every football player has to be willing to take his chances.

By the way, the tally of e-mail messages and phone calls on the Tuesday after the column appeared was 18 in favor of my column and 14 against. A total of 32 essays and phone calls and more than half believed they knew how to calculate God’s football picks of the week.

One e-mail from a fellow named Frank suggested prayers before and after the game were to help young people honor God with their caliber of play. If they play well, God is honored. If they stink up the place, God is allegedly ashamed.

I don’t think it makes any difference how students play because, I believe, God doesn’t care. God cares about those who are poor, sick and sad. If you want students to honor God, teach them how to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, heal and comfort the sick and bring cheer to the depressed. That will honor God. But a footballer playing well honors only himself and perhaps, his school.

Here’s another argument. Some readers said that God is omnipotent and therefore the Almighty can be helping the least, the last and the lost and still be sitting in the football stands on Friday evenings cheering on the home team. My question is: Why would God want to be watching football on Friday evening? It has nothing to do with his purpose or mission. And a football game does not bring lasting happiness to people — just that flash of excitement that begins to fade when the stadium lights shut down.

This past Friday evening there was a planned prayer protest in Santa Fe, Texas, where planners said 10,000 people would show up to pray at the high school football game. About 200 showed up, and their prayers were drowned out by the public address system as an announcer introduced the opposing team. There were other prayer protests — one in Asheville, N.C., drew 25,000 people, but it didn’t happen during a football game. In Hattiesburg, Miss. about 4,500 prayed before a game, and at Skiatook, Okla., a few people said their prayers.

So, there is no doubt that we have a movement working its way into American hearts. But that doesn’t mean they’re right and it doesn’t mean that God is jubilant about these prayer rallies. It just means that people are afraid their freedom to pray is being taken away by government.

Now they feel a need to show the world they can pray anywhere they want. That’s the American spirit of defiance at work.

Clark D. Morphew