Fox News hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Brian Kilmeade clashed on Thursday over whether or not it was proper for a Georgia high school to allow mass baptisms on school grounds.
According to Hasselbeck, there had been "much critique from those who don't believe" after First Baptist Church in Villa Rica posted videos of mass baptisms being performed at Villa Rica High School prior to a football game.
Guest host Pete Hegseth argued that there was nothing wrong with baptisms on school grounds because it was "a beautiful expression of faith on a voluntary basis."
"When you are baptized, it is an act of will," Hasselbeck agreed. "So you can't necessarily force someone to give their hearts. You must give your heart over to the Lord."
Hasselbeck, whose husband played for the NFL, speculated that "many of those kids would not say they were forced" to participate.
Kilmeade, however, took the side of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
"The thing is, with a team that tells you to wear the same thing, show up and eat the same stuff and make sure you show up at the same time, and do everything together and prove that you are going to be part of a larger group, if the group decides to go and get baptized, to put your hand up and go sit against the wall is the beginning of maybe not being part of the team," Kilmeade warned. "There could have been pressure there. Personally, I'm stunned that a football team would do something like this."
"Football teams pray all the time though," Hasselbeck replied. "So the other side of this is so many teams get together and pray before they go out there."
"How many got baptized?" Kilmeade asked.
Hasselbeck insisted that the baptisms could not have been coercive because only 18 members of the team agreed to receive the Christian sacrament.
"The majority of the team seems to have not been baptized if you go on numbers alone," she quipped.
"I just think it's inappropriate," Kilmeade insisted. "You could be the most fervent Christian, you're there to play sports, come together as a team. I don't think you should be getting baptized before or after an event."
"But what argument are you going to make?" Hasselbeck opined. "Oh no, my kid loves God and is going to love other people?"
"Are you playing football or are you going to church?" Kilmeade shot back.
Watch the video below Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Sept. 3, 2015.
