NBC Sports is now the judge of who is and who is not a “real” Christian.
San Francisco Giants’s Sam Coonrod declined last week during the team’s season opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers to take a knee during the performance of the national anthem. He was the only player on either team to remain standing. The reliever explained later that, as a Christian, he is uncomfortable kneeling before anything but God.
For this, NBC Sports published an article this weekend, declaring the pitcher both a false Christian and anti-humanity.
“I meant no ill will by it,” Coonrod said of his declining to partake in the season opener’s anti-police brutality demonstration. “I don’t think I’m better than anyone. I’m a Christian. I just believe I can’t kneel before anything besides God, Jesus Christ.”
He added, “I chose not to kneel. I feel that if I did kneel, I would be being a hypocrite. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. Like I said, I didn’t mean any ill will toward anyone.”
Coonrod also said he takes issue with a few of the ideas promoted by the anti-police Black Lives Matter movement.
“I’m a Christian, like I said, and I just can’t get on board with a couple of things that I have read about Black Lives Matter,” he said. “How they lean toward Marxism and they’ve said some negative things about the nuclear family — I just can’t get on board with that.”
This simple explanation did not sit well with NBC Sports reporter Monte Poole, who published an article this weekend judging Coonrod’s faith and actions — you’ll find it a big surprise that he is anathema.
“All the Giants pitcher did was exercise the right that all Americans have, at least theoretically,” said the reporter this weekend. “Freedom of choice. The right for which millions of Americans fought, with many dying.”
Then comes Poole’s real criticism.
“He said plenty wrong, though, offering up an explanation that slid off his tongue and went dribbling down his chest like liquid contradiction,” Poole wrote.
He added of Coonrod’s explanation, “When did real Christianity opt out of humanity? Give a pass to injustice and inequality? Decide that it’s disrespectful to offer support, if not shelter, to those in need? Does Coonrod not realize that pastors of all faiths are joining crowds around the world fighting for these very ideals?”
This last bit about Christian pastors, by the way, is a good demonstration of the “appeal to authority” fallacy.
“Like so many others swimming against the tide of progress,” Poole continued, “[I]f Coonrod had taken a moment to inform himself, he would see motive behind this movement need not be affiliated with BLM but, rather, to bring greater awareness to the racial injustices that is its focus.”
The reporter then argued that Coonrod’s objections are most likely because the pitcher subconsciously believes racism is acceptable, because, along with being an activist, the reporter is also apparently a mind reader.
“See, what Coonrod did not say but surely crept into the minds of listeners and readers is that he believes the various evolutions of America’s two greatest sins — the other being stealing land from the natives — are acceptable,” the reporter argued. “That equality is something for others to deal with.”
He added, “That Christianity has, somehow, disqualified him from the cause. There are only two rational explanations for what Coonrod said. One, he didn’t hear himself speak. Or, two, he heard every word he said and knows he did not say what he really meant.”
That whole “judge not, lest ye be judged” is so old-fashioned. By the way, what was the score of the Giants’s season opener? NBC Sports is a sports website, isn’t it?
