Last week, exciting news spread among conservative Christian parents. Minnesota Hockey had overruled Minnesota District 10 Hockey. On-ice prayer, at least for now, will continue.

The Christians had won!

Well, when I say “Christians” won, I should clarify that I’m not talking about all Christians. There are Christians who do not see Minnesota Hockey’s decision as a victory, who see such prayer — as a public display — contrary to the teachings of Christ himself. They might, actually, see the decision as a loss for Christianity in general.

There are Christians (I am one) who wonder why anyone feels the necessity for formal, organized prayer during sporting events at all. Why not at the grocery store, given the high price of food? Why not at the local bank?

But after District 10 Hockey (which covers an area roughly from the northern Twin Cities suburbs to Sandstone) banned its young players from gathering on ice after games to save valuable ice time, essentially banning on-ice group prayer, another kind of Christian erupted.

“We are not in this district but I already told my son he should be doing a prayer circle after every game to protest this,” one man wrote on a social media post from the conservative Alpha News.

“Don’t let anyone take your religious freedom away!” a woman wrote.

To be clear, nobody is banning prayer, which is impossible anyway. Players can pray while lacing up their skates just as well, perhaps more effectively, than in a quick huddle while the Zamboni driver is staring daggers at them.

So why the uproar? Why the feeling of persecution? Why are some Christians feeling driven to fight when, according to my understanding, Jesus himself urged gentleness and generosity?

To learn more, I called Cameron Carson, a hockey dad from Princeton who spread a message on social media in all caps sandwiched between red emergency lights. “Prayer under attack in Minnesota Hockey,” the message read, calling District 10’s action “dangerous.”

“If we allow this here, it will spread across Minnesota, across other states, and across other sports,” his message read.

He received significant pushback online, including from one anonymous parent who said they were a churchgoing Christian, taught their children to pray and still found it “weird” that some teams practice group prayer.

“Sports aren’t the time or place for religious practices that likely are not practiced by everyone involved,” they wrote.

Hockey prayer circles weren’t around when Carson, 37, was playing youth hockey. At least, he said, he didn’t know of any. I did dig up a couple of old articles that indicated they got their start around 2010. So they’re a relatively recent phenomenon, not the entrenched tradition their proponents would like us to believe.

Carson sees no contradiction between Jesus calling out hypocrites praying in public to increase their social standing and Carson’s advocacy of the on-ice prayer circles. What matters is what is in a person’s heart, he said.

He says the intent of the prayer circles is to establish a bond between kids and to temper the at times ferociously competitive nature of the game.

The traditional handshaking between teams after a game doesn’t go far enough to establish good sportsmanship, Carson said, as he has witnessed tit-for-tat behavior between rivals during that time.

Group prayer is different, he said. It establishes a rapport even between rivals, and instills the idea that there’s something greater than themselves. That they kneel on center ice might seem performative, but Carson says they do it there to include both teams before everyone skates off to separate locker rooms.

It sounds lovely. I’m a firm believer in the power of prayer.

But, forgive me. I can’t help but be suspicious that the ultimate goal here extends far beyond some innocuous bonding between young hockey players. It feels like another step in the long march of Christian nationalist ambition to dominate every aspect of American society. And when this type of Christianity dominates, other groups lose rights. The right to abortion, the right to medical care for transgender youth, the right of teachers to hang inclusive posters in their classrooms.

The right to criticize Charlie Kirk.

The right to poke fun at President Donald Trump.

We haven’t even addressed how Christian prayer excludes kids of other faiths or no faith.

I’m not saying that the parents fighting to continue the hockey prayer circles are Christian nationalists. Carson had never heard of the Seven Mountain Mandate or Lance Wallnau, for instance, and when he looked it up his initial reaction was that he didn’t agree with it.

But there’s a reason some District 10 hockey parents rebelled when learning their on-ice prayer circles would be discontinued.

And it didn’t have anything to do with the teachings of the carpenter from Nazareth.