MAGAZINE 
2010 ISSUES March Issue 2010 All Out
2010 ISSUES March Issue 2010 All Out
The Newer, Uglier Face of Homophobia in Sports
As 2009 faded behind us, LGBT visibility in the sports world seemed to be reaching a zenith. GLAAD award nominations were top-heavy with sports coverage. Among the nominations was the Brian Sims* story run by Outsports – a heartwarming profile of a college football player whose coming-out courage was actually acclaimed by his teammates, coach and school. In pro sports, UK rugby player Gareth Thomas did the highest-profile coming-out to date.Sure, the LGBT world is still debating whether closeted pro athletes (especially the celebrity ones) should be forcibly outed. And Martina was admitting to $10 million in endorsements that she'd lost by coming out.
Yet it seemed like we were making progress.
But hold your horses. The religious right are putting a replacement special team on the field. It’s called the New Apostolic Reformation, and it’s making old-school bigots like Jerry Falwell look moderate. If these people win their game, coming out as an LGBT athlete is going to get more dangerous and difficult.
The More Violent You Are
The New Apostolic movement is a Pentecostal offshoot of the more familiar fundamentalist movement. “Pentecostal” includes a high-energy crowd consciousness, a mass belief in miraculous healings, even in alleged raisings from the dead. NAR is galvanized by a belief that “unsaved” individuals, neighborhoods and cities, even entire countries, are possessed by powerful “demon spirits.” If the NAR politicks hard enough, they believe that the “demons” will flee. Among the biggest, baddest “demons” are those that allegedly possess LGBT people.
Some of their leaders, like Kenya’s pastor Thomas Muthee, who is Sarah Palin’s mentor, boldly advocate violence. On the evening that he consecrated Palin’s political career at her Alaska church, he told the congregation: “The more violent you become, the more committed you become, the quicker you will see things happen.”
The NAR is not a single monolithic organization. Rather it's a massive, rambling international movement involving countless thousands of churches, NGOs and organizations all over the world, as well as thousands of pastors, who maintain intricate networks of partnership. It’s supported by massive amounts of money through corporate contributions and personal tithing. One notable figure: Rick Warren of Saddleback Church ministries, whose favorite expression, “purpose driven,” is a code word for establishing theocratic government.
Many years ago, the NAR learned that the Pentecostal approach appealed powerfully to the emotions of poor people, who are easily moved to believe that Jesus will end their poverty. So the NAR have been missionizing massively in Central and South America and – most importantly – in Africa. There they raised the Christian population from around nine million in 1900 to an astonishing 400 million today – of which 147 million are reportedly Pentecostal and Charismatic.
NAR’s aim is to create a coalition of African “purpose driven” governments. So far, they’ve copped Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria. Unfortunately the conditions prevailing in so many African countries – famine, chronic disease, never-ending civil wars and atrocities – make Africa a fertile ground for religious violence against gays. Indeed, the NAR’s success across Africa explains why the continent has become a world “leader” in gruesome homophobia.
After Uganda was taken over by a “purpose driven” dictatorship, its Parliament decided to clean up the country “morally.” They’re proposing a law that mandates death by hanging for some homosexual acts, forced therapy for homosexuals, and long prison sentences for non-gays who aid and abet homosexuals in any way. Ugandan lawmakers were egged on by American NAR-ists, including several prominent Congressmen, as well as Warren and other pastors. As I write this, international outrage at Uganda’s anti-gay policy has been intense.
NAR-type Americans were not fazed by news-media revelations that Rick Warren had helped to fuel the anti-gay atmosphere in Uganda. Just before the holidays, when Warren told his followers that Saddleback Church was facing a $900,000 shortfall, they endorsed his policies by putting $2.4 million in the collection plate.
The Deadly Vice
Inevitably the tidal wave of Pentecostal “reform” hit African sports – notably soccer, the continent’s most popular game. It’s no news to us that soccer is raddled with homophobia, but Uganda carries it to a new level.
In July 2009, the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) announced that it was registering every coach under a new code of conduct requiring them to pledge opposition to homosexuality. Box Turtle Bulletin, a Web publication that reports on NAR activities, was one of the few U.S. media that paid attention to this soccer inquisition. BTB writer Jim Burroway reported:
“Ugandan newspapers have been reporting on several rumors of homosexuality in the ranks of Uganda’s professional football league. [FUFA] vows to root it out. The coaches’ association vice chairman Stone Kyambadde yesterday told the FUFA-PostBank weekly press conference that the move will limit coaches from actions that will bring the game into disrepute. [He said,] ‘We are going to address that (sodomy) in the code of conduct.’
“The accusations have already claimed one victim. Horizon Coach Charles Ayiekoh was suspended after an accusation by a player. He was ordered to appear at a police station in Kampala on July 8. … Kyambadde added that their association had stepped up in its efforts to … ‘wipe out the deadly vice.’”
Not surprisingly, the Uganda soccer inquisition got rolling at about the same time that the anti-gay legislation began moving into Parliament.
No “Gay Hair”
By December 2009, Uganda’s anti-gay frenzy was spreading. Little neighboring Rwanda, still struggling to recover from the infamous 1994 genocide, introduced a copycat anti-gay bill of its own. The Nigerian government was hatching its own draconian laws, and warned against soccer players wearing “gay hair,” earrings and other perceived homosexual influences.
Elsewhere, in Cameroon, fierce efforts are made to keep lesbians off women’s soccer teams, through strategies that employ blackmail and rape. Even in South Africa, a nation that is more stable and less Pentecostal-impacted, the brutal 2008 gang-rape and murder of national-team soccer player Eudy Simelane showed how anti-gay terrorism is spreading in sports.
Meanwhile, FIFA wrote to the Ugandan soccer body demanding an explanation for the purge of coaches who are allegedly gay. FIFA’s Code of Ethics prohibits discrimination. FUFA snapped back denying wrongdoing. So far, sad to say, FIFA has done little to enforce its rules. Possibly the governing body fears that, as more “purpose driven” African countries join the witch hunt against gays in soccer, suspending these countries could take much of Africa out of the World Cup.
Pledges and Pressures
Fresh from their victories overseas, the NAR intend to clean up “demon spirits” in the United States. With recession hitting hard, many frightened Americans are now vulnerable to a siren song that Jesus equals prosperity.
It’s alarming to see how little attention most Americans are paying to this growing movement, though it openly fuels the bigoted Teabagger demonstrations. Some top Republican political figures, including Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, are now linked to it. With the Democrats and Obama administration faltering, the NAR aims to capture the White House and Congress in 2010. If that happens, Americans will be seeing “purpose driven” changes in government and law enforcement.
Naturally NAR has a vested interest in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), the country’s biggest organization of Christian athletes. The FCA has been around for years, looking to co-opt every sport from football to horse racing. But recently this organization quietly hooked up with Rick Warren’s ministry. According to its Web sites, FCA is now using Saddleback Church’s “purpose driven” approach to reform both professional and school sports. In other words, a team, an athletic department – even an entire campus – is seen as a “demon-possessed territory,” one that must be purged of any unwelcome people.
Though the FCA insists that it is “interdenominational,” it requires its members to sign a pledge committing to a list of specific Christian beliefs that would exclude quite a few U.S. denominations. Coaches, players and volunteers must also sign an agreement to practice “sexual purity,” meaning no homosexuality or sex outside hetero marriage.
The NAR made a start with MLB’s Colorado Rockies, which went “Christian” two years ago. But the biggest target is school sports, since it’s alleged that our “homosexual demons” are recruiting minors. At the University of Louisville, entire teams are now FCA and study Rick Warren’s bestselling book Purpose-Driven Life when they aren’t playing. The school’s head coaches in football, men’s soccer, baseball and tennis are all FCA. At the University of Wyoming, athletes must study Christian materials titled “The Purpose Driven Athlete.”
At the K-12 level, the newly radicalized FCA is active in growing numbers of school districts. In Jackson, NC, for example, the FCA is entrenched at Jacksonville High School, where athletes who are FCA members take their exams separately from other students. In short, every school district in the country is a potential “demon territory” that must be occupied on behalf of King Jesus.
In this scary new climate, coming out is going to be a whole new ball game.
* Brian Sims was also profiled in the October 2009 issue of Compete
Yet it seemed like we were making progress.
But hold your horses. The religious right are putting a replacement special team on the field. It’s called the New Apostolic Reformation, and it’s making old-school bigots like Jerry Falwell look moderate. If these people win their game, coming out as an LGBT athlete is going to get more dangerous and difficult.
The More Violent You Are
The New Apostolic movement is a Pentecostal offshoot of the more familiar fundamentalist movement. “Pentecostal” includes a high-energy crowd consciousness, a mass belief in miraculous healings, even in alleged raisings from the dead. NAR is galvanized by a belief that “unsaved” individuals, neighborhoods and cities, even entire countries, are possessed by powerful “demon spirits.” If the NAR politicks hard enough, they believe that the “demons” will flee. Among the biggest, baddest “demons” are those that allegedly possess LGBT people.
Some of their leaders, like Kenya’s pastor Thomas Muthee, who is Sarah Palin’s mentor, boldly advocate violence. On the evening that he consecrated Palin’s political career at her Alaska church, he told the congregation: “The more violent you become, the more committed you become, the quicker you will see things happen.”
The NAR is not a single monolithic organization. Rather it's a massive, rambling international movement involving countless thousands of churches, NGOs and organizations all over the world, as well as thousands of pastors, who maintain intricate networks of partnership. It’s supported by massive amounts of money through corporate contributions and personal tithing. One notable figure: Rick Warren of Saddleback Church ministries, whose favorite expression, “purpose driven,” is a code word for establishing theocratic government.
Many years ago, the NAR learned that the Pentecostal approach appealed powerfully to the emotions of poor people, who are easily moved to believe that Jesus will end their poverty. So the NAR have been missionizing massively in Central and South America and – most importantly – in Africa. There they raised the Christian population from around nine million in 1900 to an astonishing 400 million today – of which 147 million are reportedly Pentecostal and Charismatic.
NAR’s aim is to create a coalition of African “purpose driven” governments. So far, they’ve copped Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria. Unfortunately the conditions prevailing in so many African countries – famine, chronic disease, never-ending civil wars and atrocities – make Africa a fertile ground for religious violence against gays. Indeed, the NAR’s success across Africa explains why the continent has become a world “leader” in gruesome homophobia.
After Uganda was taken over by a “purpose driven” dictatorship, its Parliament decided to clean up the country “morally.” They’re proposing a law that mandates death by hanging for some homosexual acts, forced therapy for homosexuals, and long prison sentences for non-gays who aid and abet homosexuals in any way. Ugandan lawmakers were egged on by American NAR-ists, including several prominent Congressmen, as well as Warren and other pastors. As I write this, international outrage at Uganda’s anti-gay policy has been intense.
NAR-type Americans were not fazed by news-media revelations that Rick Warren had helped to fuel the anti-gay atmosphere in Uganda. Just before the holidays, when Warren told his followers that Saddleback Church was facing a $900,000 shortfall, they endorsed his policies by putting $2.4 million in the collection plate.
The Deadly Vice
Inevitably the tidal wave of Pentecostal “reform” hit African sports – notably soccer, the continent’s most popular game. It’s no news to us that soccer is raddled with homophobia, but Uganda carries it to a new level.
In July 2009, the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) announced that it was registering every coach under a new code of conduct requiring them to pledge opposition to homosexuality. Box Turtle Bulletin, a Web publication that reports on NAR activities, was one of the few U.S. media that paid attention to this soccer inquisition. BTB writer Jim Burroway reported:
“Ugandan newspapers have been reporting on several rumors of homosexuality in the ranks of Uganda’s professional football league. [FUFA] vows to root it out. The coaches’ association vice chairman Stone Kyambadde yesterday told the FUFA-PostBank weekly press conference that the move will limit coaches from actions that will bring the game into disrepute. [He said,] ‘We are going to address that (sodomy) in the code of conduct.’
“The accusations have already claimed one victim. Horizon Coach Charles Ayiekoh was suspended after an accusation by a player. He was ordered to appear at a police station in Kampala on July 8. … Kyambadde added that their association had stepped up in its efforts to … ‘wipe out the deadly vice.’”
Not surprisingly, the Uganda soccer inquisition got rolling at about the same time that the anti-gay legislation began moving into Parliament.
No “Gay Hair”
By December 2009, Uganda’s anti-gay frenzy was spreading. Little neighboring Rwanda, still struggling to recover from the infamous 1994 genocide, introduced a copycat anti-gay bill of its own. The Nigerian government was hatching its own draconian laws, and warned against soccer players wearing “gay hair,” earrings and other perceived homosexual influences.
Elsewhere, in Cameroon, fierce efforts are made to keep lesbians off women’s soccer teams, through strategies that employ blackmail and rape. Even in South Africa, a nation that is more stable and less Pentecostal-impacted, the brutal 2008 gang-rape and murder of national-team soccer player Eudy Simelane showed how anti-gay terrorism is spreading in sports.
Meanwhile, FIFA wrote to the Ugandan soccer body demanding an explanation for the purge of coaches who are allegedly gay. FIFA’s Code of Ethics prohibits discrimination. FUFA snapped back denying wrongdoing. So far, sad to say, FIFA has done little to enforce its rules. Possibly the governing body fears that, as more “purpose driven” African countries join the witch hunt against gays in soccer, suspending these countries could take much of Africa out of the World Cup.
Pledges and Pressures
Fresh from their victories overseas, the NAR intend to clean up “demon spirits” in the United States. With recession hitting hard, many frightened Americans are now vulnerable to a siren song that Jesus equals prosperity.
It’s alarming to see how little attention most Americans are paying to this growing movement, though it openly fuels the bigoted Teabagger demonstrations. Some top Republican political figures, including Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, are now linked to it. With the Democrats and Obama administration faltering, the NAR aims to capture the White House and Congress in 2010. If that happens, Americans will be seeing “purpose driven” changes in government and law enforcement.
Naturally NAR has a vested interest in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), the country’s biggest organization of Christian athletes. The FCA has been around for years, looking to co-opt every sport from football to horse racing. But recently this organization quietly hooked up with Rick Warren’s ministry. According to its Web sites, FCA is now using Saddleback Church’s “purpose driven” approach to reform both professional and school sports. In other words, a team, an athletic department – even an entire campus – is seen as a “demon-possessed territory,” one that must be purged of any unwelcome people.
Though the FCA insists that it is “interdenominational,” it requires its members to sign a pledge committing to a list of specific Christian beliefs that would exclude quite a few U.S. denominations. Coaches, players and volunteers must also sign an agreement to practice “sexual purity,” meaning no homosexuality or sex outside hetero marriage.
The NAR made a start with MLB’s Colorado Rockies, which went “Christian” two years ago. But the biggest target is school sports, since it’s alleged that our “homosexual demons” are recruiting minors. At the University of Louisville, entire teams are now FCA and study Rick Warren’s bestselling book Purpose-Driven Life when they aren’t playing. The school’s head coaches in football, men’s soccer, baseball and tennis are all FCA. At the University of Wyoming, athletes must study Christian materials titled “The Purpose Driven Athlete.”
At the K-12 level, the newly radicalized FCA is active in growing numbers of school districts. In Jackson, NC, for example, the FCA is entrenched at Jacksonville High School, where athletes who are FCA members take their exams separately from other students. In short, every school district in the country is a potential “demon territory” that must be occupied on behalf of King Jesus.
In this scary new climate, coming out is going to be a whole new ball game.
* Brian Sims was also profiled in the October 2009 issue of Compete
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