Prayer and Protest: Fox News Gets It Right

Jesus said, 
“Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name. 
   Your kingdom come.
   Your will be done,
     on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:9-10

Fox News was widely criticized for airing a news report showing Philadelphia Eagles players kneeling in prayer before a game and claiming that they were protesting the National Anthem. The photos provided a background visual for a news report on the President’s cancellation of a planned White House visit by the Philadelphia Eagles to celebrate their Super Bowl Championship.

The President had disinvited the team because only a small number of the players (less than ten) were planning to attend. In reporting the story, Fox used pictures that purported to show Eagles players kneeling during the National Anthem, when in fact none of the players had kneeled during the anthem at any game all season. The pictures actually showed Eagles players kneeling in prayer before the game and before the playing of the anthem.

Philadelphia tight end Zach Ertz, one of the players shown kneeling, expressed his frustration on Twitter:

"This can’t be serious.... Praying before games with my teammates, well before the anthem, is being used for your propaganda?! Just sad, I feel like you guys should have to be better than this."

In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, Judd Legum was sharply critical:

“Innocent mistake? Possible, but unlikely. Fox News commentators have been railing against NFL protest kneelers for some time. ‘And you have to ask, what are we kneeling for at this point?’ said host Pete Hegseth last September. ‘Because you talk about social injustice. This is the least sexist, least racist, most free, most equal, most prosperous country in the history of humankind.’ Tucker Carlson: ‘They’re attacking the flag and the country, and I’m just telling you that when the richest people in a society decide the country they are supposed to be running is corrupt, it falls apart’ Sean Hannity: ‘Patriotism under fire’.”

Eventually, Christopher Wallace, the executive producer of "Fox News at Night with Shannon Bream," issued this apology:

"During our report about President Trump canceling the Philadelphia Eagles' trip to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl win, we showed unrelated footage of players kneeling in prayer. To clarify, no members of the team knelt in protest during the national anthem throughout regular or postseason last year. We apologize for the error."

The pictures were deceptive. 

But there is a deeper issue here.

The complaint is that Fox News misrepresented prayer as protest.

But at the deepest level Fox (unintentionally) got it right: prayer is protest.

Karl Barth liked to say that, “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” ("Hände falten im Gebet ist der Anfang des Aufstandes gegen die Unordnung der Welt!")

Prayer is a rebellion against violence and injustice. Jesus instructed his disciples that when we place ourselves before God our first petition should be for the coming of God’s kingdom of social and economic justice, peace and non-violence.

Even the simplest prayers at meals or at bed-time point toward a different reality than the one we normally encounter. We ask forgiveness for the wrongs we have done and we protest our own failings. Our protest in those moments is introspective, but it is real.

If prayer is not protest, it is not authentic prayer.

It is important to be clear with regard to the NFL players. Fox has consistently misrepresented the issue. No one is protesting the National Anthem. They have been protesting racial injustice and police brutality, which disproportionately impacts people of color. 

When Henry David Thoreau was in Concord prison for his refusal to pay the poll tax as a protest against slavery and the Mexican-American war, legend has it that Ralph Waldo Emerson asked him, “What are you doing in here?” And Thoreau responded, “Waldo, what are you doing out there?”

The exchange is apocryphal, but the question is true.

If we are at all familiar with the issue of racial injustice in America, the question is not, “Why are some of the players kneeling?” The question is, “Why isn’t everyone kneeling?”

As Christians, we should be kneeling in prayer and in protest.

Thank you for reading. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Please feel free to share on social media as you wish. 

"Like a Flag Flown at Half-Mast to Mark a Tragedy"

Eric Reid and Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem last season

He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
Philippians 2:7-10

In a Tuesday morning tweet, theologian Diana Butler Bass wrote:

Preaching on Sun & just checked assigned lectionary text:  "At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend."

I kid you not.

Apparently even the Apostle Paul has something to say about NFL players “taking a knee during the National Anthem on Sunday.

The protest began in the 2016 preseason when Eric Reid and Colin Kaepernick chose to sit on the bench rather than stand during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality. A week later they decided that they should kneel rather than sit in order to make clear that their protest was meant to be respectful of the anthem and the flag.

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Reid writes:

“After hours of careful consideration, and even a visit from Nate Boyer, a retired Green Beret and former NFL player, we came to the conclusion that we should kneel, rather than sit, the next day during the anthem as a peaceful protest. We chose to kneel because it’s a respectful gesture. I remember thinking our posture was like a flag flown at half-mast to mark a tragedy.”

Like a flag flown at half-mast to mark a tragedy. 

Hardly a sign of disrespect.

“It baffles me that our protest is still being misconstrued as disrespectful to the country, flag, and military personnel,” Reid wrote. “We chose it because it’s exactly the opposite. It has always been my understanding that the brave men and women who fought and died for our country did so to ensure that we could live in a fair and free society, which includes the right to speak out in protest.”

Other players around the league joined Reid and Kaepernick in their silent protest, but it did not gain widespread attention until the President put it front and center in a speech on behalf of Senator Luther Strange in Huntsville, Alabama. He asked the crowd if they would “love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired’?”

He also called for fans to boycott the league until the protest was stopped.

Which resulted in many more players choosing to take a knee during the anthem, and many of Mr. Trump’s fans reacting with anger toward the players.

We might pause for a minute to think about the language Mr. Trump used. The Nazis and White Supremacists in Charlottesville were carefully described with the generalization that there were good people on both sides. But (mostly) black football players taking part in a peaceful protest are called “sons of bitches.”

When the “Black Lives Matter” protests began, a major part of the criticism was that the protests were not sufficiently peaceful. But it is hard to think of anything more peaceful than kneeling.

In his “Minority of One” column in the Chicago Tribune, Steve Chapman writes:

“. . . if you don’t like how Black Lives Matter pursues its agenda, you should welcome the NFL players’ approach. It’s silent; it’s not disruptive; and it’s entirely nonviolent. It doesn’t block traffic, occupy police or frighten bystanders. . . That the display evokes so much fury and disgust among whites, from the president on down, confirms what was evident 50 years ago. The problem is not how blacks raise their complaints about American society; it’s that they raise them.”

  

Thank you for reading. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Please feel free to share on social media as you wish. 

Why Can't the Church Be More Like the NFL?

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” 
When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
John 11:38-39, 43-44

When Ryan O’Callaghan was eleven years old he was absolutely certain of two things. He knew that he was gay and he knew that he could never tell anyone that truth about himself.

As a youngster growing up in Redlands, California, Ryan O’Callaghan heard older youth and adults speak of homosexuality in derogatory terms. He was pained by the slurs and the off color jokes. And it reinforced his conviction that he could never come out to anyone other than himself.

In high school he discovered football. He was good at it and it was the perfect way to hide his sexuality. No one could possibly think that a big football player was gay.

He added two more certainties. First, he would devote himself to football. It would be his life. And second, when his football career was over he would kill himself. 

He got a full scholarship to play football at the University of California and he excelled. He  won the Morris trophy as the best offensive lineman in the Pac-12. It meant a lot because it was not voted on by fans or coaches, but by the guys who had played defense against him.

He was drafted by the Patriots in the fifth round. It was great to be drafted, but he knew that as a fifth round draft choice he was not expected to make the team. The odds were against him. But he loved the Patriots’ single minded approach. Everything was about winning. There could be no distractions. Everyone had a job to do and it was all about doing your job.

He made the team.

But after some initial success a series of nagging injuries kept him out of action and eventually the Patriots released him.

Then Scott Pioli signed him to play for the Kansas City Chiefs. Pioli had worked for the Patriots before becoming the general manager of the Chiefs and he was familiar with O’Callaghan’s ability and work ethic.

After a very promising start, the old injuries resurfaced and it looked like O’Callaghan’s life was moving toward his final chapter. 

He became addicted to pain pills. They were supposed to mitigate the pain of his physical injuries and they also helped dull the deeper pain of hiding his true self from the world. 

He bought land outside of Kansas City and built a cabin where he planned to end his life. He had several guns in the cabin. All he needed to do was to pull the trigger.

At the same time, he was rehabbing a shoulder injury at the Chief’s complex with David Price, a physical trainer. It was one last attempt to resume his career. Price saw that O’Callaghan’s behavior was becoming increasingly erratic, which he believed was evidence of a drug problem. He convinced Ryan to see a counselor, Susan Wilson, who had worked with other athletes who had drug problems.

Eventually she realized that he was dealing with more than the drug issues. She helped him to come out to her about his sexuality. But he was still convinced that no one else in his life would be able to accept him and he still saw death as the only escape.

She persuaded him to test his assumption by telling someone who cared about him and seeing what the reaction would be. After giving it some thought, he decided that he would tell Scott Pioli, whom he considered to be a good friend.

He called Pioli and asked if they could meet to discuss a serious issue. In an excellent article in OutSports.com, Cyd Ziegler describes the conversation this way:

"He had built this up like he was coming in to tell me that maybe he had done something truly terrible," Pioli remembered.

O’Callaghan trudged into Pioli’s office the next day. After a hug and some small talk, O’Callaghan turned serious. He told Pioli he had been visiting with Wilson and had gotten "clean." It was good news to Pioli.

"I’ve got something else I’ve got to tell you," O’Callaghan said. At this point he was fighting back tears. Pioli’s mind raced, wondering if his player had harmed or killed someone.

 "I’m gay," O’Callaghan said.

 His private announcement was met with immediate support from the GM. Then:

"So what’s the problem you wanted to talk me about?" Pioli asked.

O’Callaghan looked at him, bewildered, 27 years of fear, anxiety and self-loathing meeting Pioli’s stare.

"Scott," O’Callaghan said, "I’m… gay."

Pioli acknowledged that and asked again if O’Callaghan had done something wrong.

"People like me are supposed to react a certain way, I guess," Pioli told Outsports. "I wasn’t minimizing what he was telling me, but I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. He built this up and built this up to the point where he said he was nearly suicidal. What Ryan didn’t know is how many gay people I’ve had in my life."

And in that moment Scott Pioli called Ryan O’Callaghan from death into life.

In John’s Gospel the author tells the story of Jesus and Lazarus as a parable. The meaning is deeper than any literal reading could reveal. Christ is the one who calls us from death into life, and that is precisely the work of the church. And it is the work to which we are called as Christians and as human beings.

The title of the blog is intentionally hyperbolic. The NFL is hardly the guardian of virtue and the reactions of church folks are often at least as open and accepting as Scott Pioloi was with Ryan O’Callaghan.

But the story reminds us how high the stakes are.

When the United Methodist Church, or any other church, tells its young people that because they are gay their lives will be “incompatible with Christian teaching,” that it is sinful for them to commit themselves to a relationship in the same way that heterosexuals take for granted, then we are part of that great sea of condemnation that makes gay kids feel like their lives are not worth living.

Ryan O’Callaghan has gone public with his personal journey because he wants to stop kids from killing themselves.

Jesus said, “Unbind him. Let him go.”

Thank you for reading. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Please feel free to share on social media as you wish.