The other day I praised an Orthodox Jewish school in Texas for declining to continue its quest for a private-school basketball championship rather than play ball on the Jewish sabbath. I wish that Tapps, the private entity governing this league, had done the gracious thing — dare I say the decent Christian thing? — and rescheduled the game to make it possible for the observant Jewish players to compete. But Tapps had a point: the organization is voluntary, and Beren Academy knew the rules when they joined. The other day, I praised the school’s rabbi and headmaster for saying, “The sacred mission will trump excellence in the secular world.”

Well, the match did, in the end, get rescheduled, and Beren won its game. Congratulations, I guess. But the fact that some players’ parents forced the game to happen by filing a lawsuit makes me sad. They had an opportunity to make a strong countercultural statement about the primacy of faith, but instead chose to make a statement that’s all too common in American society: If you won’t bend the rules to accommodate us, we’ll sue you.

Beren could have been a terrific example about how fidelity to God is more important than sports or secular success. Now they’re just like all the rest of us.