Jason Collins, A.C. Green, and an Intolerable Sexuality

*Disclaimer* This post goes beyond the original scope of this blog’s intended content. So be it.

Having grown up in the suburbs I am a huge Chicago sports fan. Even while I study in England I keep up on the Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks. Listening to podcasts of ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago has been a great help in staving off the homesickness that comes with living 4,000 miles and six time zones from home. ESPN Chicago’s morning show, “Carmen and Jurko,” and their afternoon show, “Waddle and Silvy,” have been a welcome escape from the mind-numbing ivory tower of academia.

You don’t have to be a sports fan to know about the recent story regarding Jason Collins. For several days I have listened to ESPN Chicago’s coverage of the Jason Collins story. Throughout the coverage we have heard how there should be no ridicule for Collins’ sexual preference and lifestyle. We have heard about tolerance, progressive society, and enlightened acceptance of different beliefs and lifestyles. And we have heard about judging and remembering athletes for their performance on the court/field and not their sexuality.

On Wednesday’s podcast, however, Carmen DeFalco, John “Jurko” Jurkovic, and Tom Waddle showed that it is not so easy to place athletic accomplishments above notoriety for a sexually abnormal or counter-cultural lifestyle.

During a trivia segment (“Jurko versus Waddle”), host Carmen DeFalco read off questions about superheroes and sports “Iron men” due to the release of the new movie, Iron Man III. For the unfamiliar, the “iron man” designation in professional sports is commonly reserved for the player who holds the record for most consecutive games played or started in that sport (Cal Ripken Jr. in Major League Baseball and  Brett Favre in the National Football League).

Read my transcription and see if you spot the inconsistency between their expressed hopes for gay athletes (past, present, and future) and their knowledge of NBA iron man, A.C. Green.

Carmen: Question three: A three time champion with the NBA Lakers, he’s the NBA’s iron man, having played in 1,192 consecutive games…

Waddle: That would be Kurt Rambis.

Carmen: That’s not a bad guess, but it’s wrong.

Jurko: Can you finish the question for [me] please?

Carmen: A three time champion with the NBA Lakers, he’s the NBA’s iron man, having played in 1,192 consecutive games.

Jurko: I am gonna go with James Worthy

Carmen: That’s incorrect.

Waddle: Can I go with, uh, uh,

Carmen: He went to Oregon State.

Jurko: He was a Beaver.

Carmen: And he used to say that he’s a virgin.

Waddle: Oh, A.C. Green.

Carmen: A.C. Green it is.

Waddle: Dang it! All you had to do is say virgin.

Carmen: It’s alright

One of them then starts singing Madonna’s “Like a virgin touched for the very first time.”

Maybe you see it now that the Jason Collins story and this A.C. Green exchange are put side-by-side. A. C. Green holds an NBA record and yet is remembered for his sexuality (in this case, chastity prior to marriage). Despite the falsetto rendition of Madonna, the exchange was not mocking in tone or disrespectful of A.C. Green, but it did demonstrate how difficult it was and is for the media to practice what they preach when it comes to athletes and sexuality. For Waddle and Jurkovich, it was Green’s abstinence, not his play that they remember.

For the record, A.C. Green does not mind being remembered in this way. Quoted in a short 2008 Sports Illustrated piece, Green says, “I love that people remember me for that. I took a stand, and I was a voice for a generation. I’m proud of that.” The same article talks about how his teammates treated him and the foundation he now runs. Despite what teammate Michael Cooper says, there is nothing “good-natured” about betting on who could get Green to go against his religious convictions and bringing women to his hotel room. That displays ignorance and intolerance, not “respect for his decision.” When quoted in the SI piece about his foundation, Green says, “I love what I’m doing. And it's important work. I want kids to see that there is more to life than chasing skirts.”

Some final thoughts-

(1) This post is long enough already. More could be said, especially about the Christian faith that influenced A.C. Green’s chastity prior to marriage. So too, the reaction of religious athletes (of more religions than just Christianity, by the way) to the Jason Collins story will no doubt receive coverage both good and bad. Keep an eye on www.GetReligion.org for thorough evaluation of those news stories.

(2) The media will continue to fixate on Jason Collins, and the question will continue to be asked, “Are professional sports ready for an openly gay athlete in the locker room?” Perhaps they should also ask, “A decade after A.C. Green retired, can professional sports teams and the media appropriately handle an athlete whose Christian practice of the sixth commandment becomes public?” On that one, ask quarterback Tim Tebow and Olympian Lolo Jones.

Nothing New Under the Sun

You have my apologies for letting this blog go dormant for so long. I hope to write more in time, but this first year of postgraduate studies has been time-engaging, to say the least!

Today I spent a fair amount of time in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series gathering some bibliographic information on Patristic commentaries. In the process I came across a number of interesting quotations that you may find interesting. Enjoy!

Origen on “Chr-easters”: Tell me, you who come to church only on festal days, are the other days not festal days? Are they not the Lord’s days? It belongs to the Jews to observe religious ceremonies on fixed and infrequent days.… God hates, therefore, those who think that the festal day of the Lord is on one day. Homilies on Genesis 10.3 (FC 71:162–63).

Jerome on how the overseers should be viewed: Be obedient to your bishop and obey him as your spiritual father. Sons love and slaves fear. “If I am a father,” he says, “where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear?” In your case one man combines in himself many titles to your respect. He is at once monk, bishop and uncle. But the bishops also should know themselves to be priests, not lords. Let them render to the clergy the honor that is their due that the clergy may offer to them the respect which belongs to bishops. Letter 52.7 (LCC 5:322).

Jerome on treating the Church as a business: Is it not written, “He says, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’ ”? We read this in Isaiah: “But you have made it a den of thieves (Lk 19:46).” …

Where we read, “You have made it a den of thieves,” John’s Gospel had instead, “You have made it a house of business.” Wherever there are thieves, there is a house of trafficking. Would that it were applied only to the Jews and not the Christians! We would, indeed, weep for them but rejoice for ourselves. But now, in many places, the house of God, the house of the Father, has become a place of business.… I who am speaking and each one of you, priest, deacon or bishop, who yesterday was a poor man, who today is a rich man in the house of God! Homilies on Mark 83 (Mark 11:15–17) (FC 57:182–83).

Another interesting interpretation I came across was how several Fathers treated Ezekiel 44:1-3 (ESV) “Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. ² And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut. ³ Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.”

Jerome, Theodoret of Cyr, Rufinus of Aquileia, and Ambrose explicitly take it as a reference to the (perpetually) Virgin Mary. I have to say, it’s not the least convincing argument I’ve heard.

Jerome: Some people nobly understand the Virgin Mary as the door that is closed, who before and after birth remained a virgin, through which only the Lord God of Israel enters. Commentary on Ezekiel 13.44.1–3 (CCL 75:646).

Theodoret of Cyr: It is very likely that these words refer to the womb of the Virgin, through which no one enters and from which no one departs other than the only one who is the Lord. Commentary on Ezekiel 16.44 (PG 81:1233).

Ambrose: What is that gate of the sanctuary, that outer gate facing the east and remaining closed? Is not Mary the gate through whom the Redeemer entered this world? Letter 44 (FC 26:227).

Jerome: Christ himself is a virgin, and his mother is also a virgin; though she is his mother, she is a virgin still. For Jesus has entered in through the closed doors, and in his tomb—a new one hewn out of the hardest rock—no one is laid either before him or after him.… Mary is the east gate, spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, always shut and always shining and either concealing or revealing the Holy of Holies. Letter 48.21 (NPNF 2 6:78).

Rufinus of Aquileia: What could be said with such evident reference to the inviolate preservation of the Virgin’s condition? That gate of virginity was closed: through it he came forth from the Virgin’s womb into this world; and the virginity was preserved inviolate, and the gate of the Virgin remained closed for ever. Therefore the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the creator of the Lord’s flesh and of his temple. Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed 9 (NPNF 2 3:547).

I know I’m not providing any added context or commentary, but you’ll survive. This is just a brief return to the blogosphere before I return to the world of summative essays and research proposals. Read the Fathers!

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