For many Christians, this past weekend marked the most holy of holidays – Easter. There are countries around the world that come to a screeching halt for Easter holidays, not unlike Christmas here in Canada. Easter is a big deal for many people because the crux of Christianity lies in the 72-hour period from death on the cross to an empty tomb come Sunday morning. For the over two billion people identifying as Christian around the world, there is no more holy and important day than Easter.
Here in Ontario, Easter Sunday will also mark the crowning of just short of half the Ontario Minor Hockey Association’s provincial champions at the end of three-day long tournaments across Ontario (including a couple local teams). It is likely that a couple kids sat out a championship game, either on their own or compelled by their parents, so that they could participate in Easter Sunday festivities. One wonders how they were treated by their peers – were they supported for sticking to their beliefs or were they ridiculed?
In perhaps the most famous example of religion influencing a person’s participation in sport, Sandy Koufax refused to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers because it fell on Yom Kippur, the most holy of days for those of the Jewish faith. He then went on to pitch three games in the series, including two shutouts, on his way to World Series MVP.
The fact that there are families across the province living with the smell of hockey equipment in a Holiday Inn on Easter should be seen as a good thing for those of us who believe that it is very important that the state be a secular institution – not influenced by any singular religious or cultural body. The fact that there were a couple kids who missed out on playing for a championship is a good thing – it means there are people willing to stand up for a personal belief even if many around them don’t understand or support it. Both of these things are good, yet the collision of secular and religious doesn’t always seem to lead to better outcomes.
Recently, a smattering of NHL players have refused to take part in Pride events citing religious beliefs or, in the case of some Russian players, a fear of reprisal in Russia. Former Maple Leaf James Riemer was the first North American player who decided to not support inclusivity in hockey. After the Staal brothers stated that their Christian faith wouldn’t allow their participation, entire teams started pulling the plug on a decade-old program that, according to Hudson Taylor, founder of Athlete Ally and inclusivity in sport advocate, was one of the most successful in men’s sports when it came to breaking down barriers. Unlike Russian players who have legitimate safety concerns to consider, North American-born players are making a conscious choice to object in the name of their chosen faith, Christianity.
The Bible is chock full of rules and there is no shortage of scholarly wrangling on which, if any are the most important. Why is it that these NHLers have focused on such an intensely personal thing like sexuality as a sin for which they cannot look away? Unless you want to throw out all your mixed fibre clothing, maintain a kosher kitchen, and stay away from marrying a Gentile so that you can adhere to Levitical law, there are less than a handful of scripture passages that mention homosexuality.
If you explore the context in which Paul was writing said passages, it is entirely plausible that he was directing his objections towards the practice of pedastary, something that was still prevalent in Roman Greece during Paul’s lifetime. Unlike a consensual and loving relationship between adults, pedastary saw powerful older men exploit teenage boys or enslaved children. When it comes to the assessment of millenia-old manuscripts (translated from a Greek dialect that was dead for almost 1,000 years when large-scale translation into English began) there is no way to ascertain with absolute certainty what the original author was trying to say. However, considering the historical context in which it was written is pretty darn important if you are trying to figure it out.
There will be plenty that scoff at this notion, but to this person who has spent an entire lifetime in and around Christianity, the actions of Mr. Riemer and the Staal brothers represents the exact opposite of what Jesus is looking for in his followers. Jesus spent his life on earth speaking truth to power, elevating the oppressed, and breaking bread with outcasts. He preached love and outreach to the masses, reserving his rebuke and scorn for church officials and religious scholars who warped God’s word for personal gain. Equal love for fellow humans is interwoven into the entire New Testament and is encapsulated quite well in James 15:12: “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
The NHL players who decided to publicly rebuke making hockey a more inclusive game did so because it didn’t cost them anything to do so. Sitting out a warm up… no big deal to the player; they still hit the ice when the puck dropped and cashed the game cheque on the way home. There was absolutely no penalty for choosing to hide behind religion instead of doing the hard thing and loving each person that walks the earth equally without judgment. All involved should be embarrassed.
Not only is Christianity being used in a disingenuous way here, it is being done in a way that slows down the purging of toxic culture from a sport that is far overdue for a cleanse. The couple kids that stood up for what they believed in and missed playing for a championship are the exact opposite of the NHL holdouts. Unlike the NHLers sacrificing nothing to slow the spread of inclusivity in hockey, those kids gave up something they worked for all season, and unlike Sandy Koufax, there was no Game 7 later that they could be a part of.
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Stewart Skinner is a local business owner, former political candidate, and has worked at Queen’s Park as a Policy Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. He can be reached at stuskinner@gmail.com or on Twitter: @modernfarmer.
