An Ethical Conundrum
A few weeks ago, Drew Brees was dragged through the media (i.e., through the mud), not for rejecting equality, but for questioning the method some NFL players used to express their discontent. Brees has and continued to claim that he supported the discussion on equality, but failed to see how kneeling during the National Anthem was linked to police brutality or race relations. According to Brees, the disrespect shown towards the military was not justifiably linkable to the conversation on ethnic-American police relations. As a result of the media scrutiny and reactions across the league, to include from some in his own locker room, Brees issued an apology and stated he had been educated and subsequently accepted the reasoning for kneeling. To be clear, dozens of NFL players, media pundits, and even the President weighed in on Brees’ statement.
Fast forward to this past week and we saw another star NFL player in the news, but not for the same reason. Philadelphia Eagles’ DeSean Jackson Tweeted quotes from Adolph Hitler (wrongly attributed) and Louis Farrakhan that play on uneducated and bigoted opinions of Jews. In short, Jackson has been fined by the Eagles for conduct detrimental to his team.
But Jackson wasn’t lambasted in the news.
Jackson’s fellow NFL stars didn’t video themselves and publish to the news media diatribes questioning his faith, fidelity, and character.
Jackson wasn’t dragged through the mud.
Sure, like Brees, Jackson apologized. Unlike Brees, whose comments weren’t actually in violation of any league policy, Jackson was fined. To his credit, or his publicist’s, Jackson met with holocaust survivor Mr. Edward Mosberg to receive a bit of a personal education. And while I do not personally know Mr. Brees or Mr. Jackson, I trust the latter’s 72-hour transcendence from anti-Semite to educated role model and cultural leader is genuine.
Christian, let’s be clear. DeSean Jackson isn’t the problem. Sure, there are millions of DeSean Jacksons out there, but they are not the problem either.
The problem is that we have forgotten how to be adults. We have forgotten how to discuss a contentious subject fairly, to listen to an opposing viewpoint, to recognize that each human has distinct and dramatically different experiences that form our impression of the world, and come to an agreement that, either one of us is right or the gulf is too great to bridge so we’ll just agree to disagree. Instead, we pander to the mob, bow to the loudest voice, paint the streets, topple history, and forget we are all creatures made in God’s image.
If we take God and religion out of the equation, we’re still left with the ethical dilemma that is “Which lives matter? Which offense is enforceable?”
I support Black Lives Matter. I also support Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, and Lives Matter. If you cannot tell, I am anti-abortion, anti-racism, anti-sexism, and pro-equality. Muslims, Christians, Jews, men, women, black, white, Hispanic – God loves us all. But which slogans, which actual crimes, and which perceived offenses do we persecute, prosecute, or promulgate?
If we are going to have real change in America, we cannot be afraid to call out the DeSean Jacksons and the Drew Brees of the world alike. We cannot bow to the din of mob rule and only decry white privilege without also decrying black privilege. Equal means equal. Anti-Semitic remarks cannot be worth 3/5 of another racist remark. As Sage Steel (ESPN) wrote on Twitter – we’re either “all in on holding [people] accountable for insensitive remarks” or we aren’t.
Or, maybe instead of scanning social media for the next offensive comment, we should read the red-letter version and take a page straight from Jesus’ lips.
“Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4, NKJV)
It really isn’t an ethical conundrum when you see it clearly.
(Photo: CNN)