Late late last night, after Johnny got done listening to the Wild Mix Radio Network, he popped on the tube before bed. ESPN was showing the 'Super Bowl Gospel Celebration'. They were, through the show, actively promoting a religion. Yes. they were. They had current and former NFL players talking about their Christian testimony. They had gospel singers singing the praises of the lord. They had ESPN reporter, employee and former NFL quarterback Shaun King taking about his wonderful life and that it was all made possible by a Christian God. Amazing.
We're not complaining about the fact there was a Super Bowl Gospel Celebration, that's fine in and of itself. If you want to go see that, go see it, we hope you have fun and get something out of it. Our question is WHY on earth is ESPN ACTIVELY promoting a religion? What business is it of their to have the NFL Players gospel choir on?. They actually had Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens, a man once indicted for murder and aggravated assault and later found guilty of obstruction of justice getting jiggy on ESPN with the lord. WHY is ESPN showing this and giving away free airtime for religious programming? Aren't there already Christian themed television networks that would be happy to show this? Don't overt religious programs normally have to buy teevee time? What about Jewish workers at ESPN? Will they get a Super Bowl Synagogue hour? Will Muslim NFL players demand a program for themselves?
We have no idea what ESPN was trying to accomplish by promoting a religion on their network, we just think is was in awful taste to do so. It left a bad taste in our mouth.
Sounds like a confict of interest and Johnny should be writing a letter of protest to ESPN so his beliefs can be heard. there is just nothing worse that mixing sports and religion.
ReplyDeleteand the worst part is that I REALLY hate the "supposedly reformed" athletes that turn into a preacher. they don't give a crap about ANY kind of religion UNTIL they get into trouble.
In this sports fan opinion, they ONLY reason why they supposedly "turn" is because it MAYBE help them out of whatever predicament they have gotten themselves into.
I was reading an article on MSNBC asking "Does Jesus really care who wins a game?". All these athletes openly making religious poses by pointing to the sky or kneeling in prayer after a touchdown. The article pointed out it's mostly QB's who do it as the camera is on them a lot. They asked would it be proper for a say a linebacker or defensive back who just really just CREAMED another player and knocked him out or hurt him on their field to point to the sky or make some other demonstrative religious pose because God made that hit possible?
ReplyDeleteIf players are willing to give God or Jesus all the credit in victory, shouldn't they also blame him for defeat? Why not "I can't believe Jesus made me fumble on that last drive."
As for allowing the overt religious statement on teevee--When they do that they encourage players and former players like former Packer Reggie White who though he lived in Green Bay, came to Johnny's former town of Ypsilanti to preach HATE. He did. White came to speak out against the fact a city he never cared about before had passed a human rights ordinance in the city charter that disallowed discriminating against people from getting a job or bank loan or whatever else because they were gay. We the citizens of Ypsilanti voted to make it that way. That wasn't good enough for Wisconsin resident White who gets free press on his religious views from places like ESPN.
White spoke about the evils of the Ypsilanti non-discrimination ordinance claiming we were giving gays special rights. Even if we were, which we weren't, what business was it of his? People like Reggie White are emboldened when they get press for their crusades.
White spoke out in favor of the ballot proposal in Ypsi to throw out the law, but the citizens of Ypsi saw through White (and Tom Monaghan's BS) and voted once again in support of non-discrimination by a WIDER margin.
I'm sure those players were paid to participate. Loving Jeebus for money is really not so different from shilling Campbell's soup or muscle relief cream.
ReplyDeleteTrixie, it was just so WRONG to see Shaun King listed as something like ESPN NFL ANALYST while giving testimony, like this somehow tied ESPN directly to the godliness on display...
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