JULY 29, 2020
Steve McConkey, the president of the Christian sports ministry 4 WINDS who once advocated for Olympic athletes to sign a faith statement against homosexuality and whined about a supposed “Atheist Gestapo,” is back with an even more outrageous request.
He wants to ban Black Lives Matter from sports. Because affirming that marginalized lives matter is somehow anti-Christian, I guess.
He made no distinction between the actual organization and the much larger, much broader movement that is focused on fighting against police brutality and racism in society. McConkey lumps it all together in one evil mashup.
We have an epidemic in sports called Black Lives Matter (BLM). A very small percentage of policemen have created situations that need addressed [sic]. However, the extreme reaction through BLM is dangerous.
…
Black Lives Matter was formed by radical Marxists. They are against nuclear families and support the transgender movement.
He’s wrongly conflating an old statement made by one of the movement’s founders with the driving force for the marches we’ve been seeing over the past several weeks. For what it’s worth, BLM as a movement is not “against” nuclear families; it simply acknowledges that families that don’t match traditional stereotypes are also valid.
“For some time, sports are being used to promote extreme liberal causes,” states McConkey. “Sports have become the vehicle for ideologies that harm society. Black Lives Matter is a violent organization that people should avoid. They want to re-make society, not create viable solutions.
“Most of the protesters do not have a clue what they are doing. Only God can change hearts. Sports will be affected as fans quit watching professional events. Add the current Virus problems to the mix and professional teams will face severe hardships.”
The people marching have been almost universally peaceful. It’s telling that McConkey thinks it’s fair to allow the violent protesters to represent the entire movement but takes great care not to do that when it comes to police.
Plus, how does he know that these protesters don’t know what they’re doing? Has he asked them? He doesn’t seem to understand why athletes are kneeling either. They are certainly aware of the consequences, given what happened to Colin Kaepernick. If kneeling against racism is no longer something that will hinder their careers, that’s because Kaepernick took the heat and because protesters have worked to make sure public opinion is on their side.
Kudos to those athletes for using their platform to stand up for marginalized groups. Whatever hardships they face for it pales in comparison to the struggle of being Black, gay, or transgender in this country. And shame on McConkey not just for his obvious bigotry, but for his refusal to understand what’s actually happening. If the roles were reversed and people began calling for Christian athletes to stop thanking God after a big play, we would never hear the end of it.
You can’t ban Black Lives Matter from sports because you won’t have sports without Black lives. We’re fortunate that athletes and protesters know better than to take advice from Christian bigots.
(Screenshot via YouTube)