You can kneel for the national anthem but don’t you dare openly express your Christian beliefs.
The National Football League recently fined New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis $7,000 for violating the league’s “personal message” rule. Davis wore a headband emblazoned with the phrase, “Man of God,” which is against league policy regarding what can be worn on official team uniforms. The violation occurred on September 22 in a game between the Saints and Seattle Seahawks. Davis was informed that if he wore the headband again, the fine would double.
Davis chose to try and make something positive out of it.
“Of course you don’t want to be fined,” he said. “Nobody wants to lose money but I think any time that the conversation about God is brought up, especially in these times, I think it’s always a positive or silver lining. If he can get glory from it, I think he can get glory from it whether I personally wear the headband or don’t wear the headband. He’s always gonna be in control of the whole situation. We’re still all good.”
I would say Mr. Davis has shown how much the bigger man he is than the small-minded, bigoted pencil-pushers in the NFL.
Davis is using the incident in other positive ways.
Now Davis is hoping to sell the headbands and donate the proceeds to a Christian charity. He added: “I’m hoping to put it out where fans can wear it, and I can wear it through them.”
You can understand why not allowing players to wear an “Impeach Trump” headband or “Lock Her Up” patches on their uniforms might be necessary.
But how controversial is God? When did God become a political player in our culture wars?
Many players’ religious beliefs are as much a part of them as the air they take in to breathe. Is it really a “personal message” to affirm your faith to the world when that faith is shared by a billion other people? If a Muslim player wanted to wear a headband saying “Allahu Akbar,” why complain?
This maniacal obsession with not offending atheists, or those who believe in “Allah” or “Vishnu” or Satan, has gone entirely too far in society as a whole. We’re all being forced to walk on eggshells lest something we say, or do — or even gesture — causes someone else to crumble into a quivering heap of Jello, having been “triggered” by one innocent word or another.
It’s a means to exercise power, of course. Anyone offended by “Man of God” does not belong within walking distance of the outside world. They need to be locked up in an insane asylum for their own protection — and ours. Claiming offense is only an excuse. The real reason for this ever-burgeoning list of words you can’t say, gestures you can’t make, names you can’t utter, or phrases that shall not be written is a means of control.
Once we can be honest about that, this nonsense will go away.
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