In a unique situation that transcends the boundaries of sport, there has been an outpouring of support for a Seattle-area swim coach who was fired by a Catholic-based prep school after disclosing that he was married to another man.
Mark Zmuda was the head coach of the swim team at Eastside Catholic High School in Seattle, and after disclosing his same-sex marriage, Sister Mary Tracy, the president of the school, fired him according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
“The archdiocese supports the decision,” said Seattle archbishop J. Peter Sartain said in a statement. “The decision has been misunderstood and mischaracterized by some, and we now have the opportunity to help our students learn even more about Catholic teaching.”
KIRO Radio reporter Brandi Kruse tweeted last night from a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Eastside Catholic High School that the board made it clear that the Board would not be reinstating Zmuda, even after the resignation of the president who fired him.
“(When Zmuda) married his same-sex partner, the school administration was left with no acceptable alternative that would allow him to remain eligible for employment at Eastside Catholic.”
While Sr. Mary Tracy has since resigned from her role as president of the school, that has not decreased the fervor over her decision to fire the swim coach who was also a vice principal at the school.
The student body, and those of several other local Catholic schools, have risen up in protest of the decision. According to Yahoo! Sports, that includes a protest by hundreds of Eastside Catholic students, as well as support from other local Jesuit-affiliated schools like Holy Names Academy, Bishop Blanchet, and Seattle Prep.
The interesting twist of this story is that Ed Murray, the mayor of Seattle, is openly gay, married, and a practicing Catholic.
This situation shows the increasing generational divide in public opinion in the United States over same-sex marriage, even within a Catholic church that holds objection as one of its primary institutional pillars. With this decision, which the archbishop described as an “opportunity to help our students learn even more about Catholic teaching,” instead a rift has been caused between the school’s students and its administration, which will likely inhibit any learning, rather than help it. There seems to be some level of hubris, though, by Seattle’s Catholic church that the students will eventually succumb and accept the firing.
This situation, centered around a swim coach, was on the front page of the New York Times, and has the potential to develop into a watershed event in the movement for gay marriage equality.
Among the top swimmers on Eastside Catholic’s swim team include sophomore Elliott Schwinn. At November’s Washington State Championship meet, he placed 8th in the 500 free in 4:48.75 and 11th in the 200 free in 1:48.75.
the bottom line is that the coach was fired for breach of contract. despite anyone’s personal opinion, that is the case. the coach should have read his contract and understood the repercussions of violating the contract.
agree or don’t agree with the cause – being a married gay person – is everyone’s right as per the 1st amendment.
now, moving forward, if this coach is as good a coach as his supporters claim, perhaps this was the best thing for him. now, he can move onto a a better coaching/teaching job without the fear of being “found out.” now he can live his life and focus on what matters most.
good luck.
To Braden Keith and moderators: please consider turning comments off on this article.
Comments on this article have strayed way past swimswam’s reason d’etre: SWIMMING. Catholicswimmer is p—ing a lot of people off, and a lot of people are p—ing catholicswimmer off. None of this theology/legal talk has anything to do with swimming, and you would do us all a service by forcing us to get over it.
There are plenty of websites to troll for social controversies… can we maintain swimswam as a swimming forum?
Other than Catholicswimmer, the rest of the comments, based on a complete lack of Catholic doctrine, appear to come from non-Catholics. What is your concern here? This incident happened in a Catholic school. Parents pay their taxes to support public schools, then make the sacrifice to pay tuition to Catholic schools so that the school will teach the values desired. It doesn’t matter if you agree with it or not. Catholicswimmer is correct in all arguments but that is not the point. The teacher was well aware of the rules and made a choice which he knew would get him fired. Religious freedom does not equal unconditional tolerance. The teacher will surely find another job in a public institution which… Read more »
If the school is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization, they are not allowed to do whatever they want necessarily.
Ding ding ding.
I murder people in my church. It’s totally cool you guys, this book said I could.
“Any school run by Jews, Muslims or Mormons would have the same right to teach their values and remove faculty who did not accept their policy.”
An interesting quote, especially as it applies to Mormons. For a number of years, Mormon doctrine asserted that to be black meant that you had the “mark of Cain”. You could not be Mormon if you were black.
That policy remained in place until the US Government told the church that they’d lose their tax exempt status if they didn’t change it. Funny thing… Very shortly thereafter, to be black was OK with the Mormons. You didn’t have the “mark of Cain” and welcome to the Church.
My point is that that religious doctrine… Read more »
I haven’t taken the time to read all (just most) of the other comments here, so forgive me if someone has already mentioned it. But….
I can’t believe that, with all of the sexual abuse issues this sport (and others) are facing right now, any institution would pick a fight with an seemingly upstanding individual that has not imposed any harm on another individual, broken any laws or committed any crime – ESPECIALLY in light of the ten of hundreds of issues the catholic church already faces in terms of abuse…oh, but wait, I forgot, homosexuality is a contagious disease (sorry, can’t avoid being snarky in light of this idiocy) and is more of a “sin” that sexual abuse.
idiots…
“How dare you not tolerate my intolerance? Perhaps YOU are the real bigot here.”
Catholic Swimmer,
Do you think Teri McKeever would be able to get the new position if she applied?
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence”
I assume item 4 is a poor joke of some sort.
From Albert Einstein:
“Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty.”
This notion that the Catholic Church that the was complicit in Nazi atrocities began in the 1960s with a play called “The Deputy”. This play was nothing more than anti-Catholic propaganda.
A New York Times editorial called Pius XII a “lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent”. This was in 1942.
You should stop the nonsense about the Pope, etc. If you want to know what Israel and Jews in general think of Pope Pius XII about his role in the Holocaust, see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/01/pope-pius-xii-holocaust_n_1641375.html . I think it is beyond dispute in academic circles that, at the very least, the Pope could have done more to help Jewish victims, and many still believe that the he did this because of his own anti-semitism. And Einstein’s quote is taken out of context in the sense that it is taken from 1940, at a time when the full extent of the Church’s involvement with Nazi Germany was not known.
The thing that gets me is that… Read more »
Item 1:
No
Item 2:
Homosexuality is not mentioned in the 10 Commandments. The Old Testament has a total of 613 Mosaic laws. More was passed from God to his people than the 10 commandments.
Here is one of many references to it in the New Testament:
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once… Read more »
Catholic Swimmer, would it be preferable that the new coach be one that fits better with the doctrine of the New Testament?
for instance, the new coach could treat the swimmers like slaves. forget USRPT, this would be their training philosophy.
“Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh”