Ruby League is not renowned for subtlety and nuance. But that’s what the Manly Seven stoush needs. Subtlety, Nuance and courage. Desperately.
In the media melee that has followed seven players on the Manly side refusing to wear what has been called a pride jumper with rainbow stripes. Theirs has been the missing voice.
The Commentatariat should not be the focus, although they are very loud, and may come across as arrogant. Getting irritated at say Peter FitzSimons of the Sydney Morning Herald is not the point.
After all, “Fitzy”: is the closest thing Australia has to a professional teaser of Christians.
We need to be careful we are not mirroring our opponents in mockery or implying that if we had cultural power we’d shut them down. (Because in the past we did.)
Some Christian responses such as James Macpherson in the Australian used emotive language describe the issues. “Wokeball now takes precedence over football.” Others on the LGBTQIA side were reaching for wors like “bigot” and “homophobe.”
But most conservative Christian response was both earnrst and restrained in the use of language. The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has re-purposed its “I stand with Israel Folau” meme to stand with the Manly Seven. And it will draw a great deal of support. A broader range of Christian will support the footballers because there’s no issue with the theology on display, unlike the Folau instance. However the campaign for the seven will be a seven-day wonder when they rejoin the Se Eagles’ team.
For example the Centre For Public Christianity’s director, Simon Smart has supported the seven telling the Melbourne Anglican “the Manly Sea Eagles rugby club’s change to the jersey showed a lack of awareness of the complexities of its player’s lives.”
Smart, who is a Manly supporter, also added that the club’s initiative was initially done with good intention but poorly handled – a point missing from the ACL commentary.
However the ACL’s Martyn Iles did say in their press release “‘Live and let live’ is the secret to harmonious inclusion. The Manly Sea Eagles are a diverse team, and they enjoyed that ethic until political symbolism muddied the waters. The solution now is to respect everyone’s convictions and move forward.”
So there are graduations in many conservative Christian responses. Less support of the club’s motives for jersey initiative from the ACL but agreeing with CPX in a general wish for people to be able to play football together.
One criticism of the Manly Seven from Fitzy and other Footrballers was that they should have protested gambling, or alcohol logos on jum pers as well as rainbow stripes.
The ever insightful blogger Stephen McAlpine reached back to Babylon.
“I do wonder how some Christians might respond to Daniel and his friends in Babylon who refused to eat of the king’s food and so defile themselves, yet were not, it seems, too troubled about learning the magic arts of Babylon that included all sorts of pagan beliefs and the worship of the heavenly bodies. Perhaps they might say, “Come on, if you’re going to do the one but not the other, you’re being a tad hypocritical, don’t you think?”
“And perhaps too, those who are tut-tutting this apparent hypocrisy, and who are Manly fans themselves, should take a hit for the, er, team. After all, the reason you can bring your whole family to the game each week, rather than just yourself, is that the alcohol and gambling money subsidises your ticket. It subsidises the team jersey you buy your son at the club shop, the meat pie you eat at halftime, and the subscription you pay to watch it all online.”
And working out how to live in a non-Christian society, just like the exiles in Babylon is really what we are talking about. Or to take the title of this website seriously, out business is to turn the other cheek. That’s what the Manly seven, ambushed by their club when heaps of other people knew what was planned, tried to do.
Akos Balogh came up with what that might look like for Manly the club. “Along with the Pride Jersey, they could have designed Jerseys with symbols of other minority groups and let the players decide which ones to wear. Let the Christians wear a cross emblazoned Jersey. Let the Muslims wear a Jersey with the crescent moon. Let the Polynesians wear their national flag. Let those who are concerned about antisemitism wear the star of David. And let those concerned about the LGBTIQ community wear the Pride Jersey.
“In other words, model what genuine ‘respect amid diversity’ looks like.“