The Football Association (FA), the governing body of English soccer, formally “reminded” a team captain that he could not write Christian messages on his league-mandated LGBTQ+ rainbow armband. Meanwhile, the FA declined to take action against Muslim players who had similarly transgressed.
The FA announced Wednesday that it would be sending a “formal reminder” to both South London’s Crystal Palace Football Club and its captain, Marc Guehi, of league policy prohibiting players from displaying “political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images” on their equipment, reported GBNews.
The league also “confirmed no action will be taken regarding” the decision of Ipswich Town’s Muslim captain, Sam Morsy, to forgo the rainbow armband during his team’s Saturday match against Nottingham Forest, wrote GBNews. And, as far as is known, the FA is unconcerned about another team’s last-minute decision not to wear rainbow jackets when one of its Muslim players objected to them.
A Jot on the Arm
The FA required team captains to wear rainbow armbands during recent games as a show of support for the London-based activist group Stonewall’s “Rainbow Laces” campaign. The campaign is supposedly about LGBTQ+ “inclusion.” However, as usual, “inclusion” really means exclusion of dissenters.
Although Guehi, a devout Christian who is very open about his faith, went along with the armband mandate, he wrote “I love Jesus” on the armband he wore during Saturday’s game against Newcastle United. The FA hastily reminded Guehi and his team of its selectively applied rule, but Guehi again inscribed a religious message, “Jesus loves you,” on his rainbow armband at Monday’s Ipswitch match.
Two days later, the FA opted not to discipline Guehi but to remind him once more of its policy concerning religious messages.
Apparently, neither Guehi nor his team’s manager is too concerned about what the FA might do. According to the Times:
The Palace manager, Oliver Glasner, offered his support to his player after the win over Ipswich. “Everyone who knows Marc knows he’s a fantastic player, he’s a great guy, very humble, we shouldn’t make it bigger than it is,” he said. “He is very respectful to everyone in the club. We are all in football against discrimination, against abuse.
“We spoke about it. He’s no child, he’s an adult person, like every one of us. He has his opinion and we accept and respect every opinion. This is the quote of this campaign, being tolerant, and Marc is very tolerant, so everything is fine.”
Guehi’s father, a Christian minister in South London, told the Daily Mail, “Jesus loved everyone, therefore by saying ‘I love Jesus’ on his armband I really don’t see what is offensive and what the problem is.”
About Faith
What is offensive to the wokesters at the FA and the militant LGBTQ+ crowd at Stonewall is any suggestion that certain sexual or gender-bending activities are sinful and, thus, deserving of eternal punishment. While it is true that Jesus loves everyone, his love also impelled him, while physically on this Earth, to point out people’s sins so they would recognize their need for a savior. The “love” peddled by FA and Stonewall is that of an overindulgent parent who lets his child do anything he wants regardless of the consequences because correcting the child might hurt his feelings.
Curiously, though, these same people are not offended when Muslims, who also believe homosexual behavior is sinful and prohibit it in countries where they predominate, refuse to bow before the LGBTQ+ gods.
Unlike Marc Guehi’s rainbow armband proclaiming the name of Jesus, Morsy’s decision not to wear the armband at all — he was the only team captain not to do so — drew no threats from the FA. The Ipswitch team fully backed Morsy, telling the Times in a statement that while they are “committed to being a fully inclusive club that welcomes everyone” and support Rainbow Laces, they also respect Morsy’s choice.
Manchester United encountered similar trouble with one of its players Sunday. The team normally wears Pride-themed jackets while warming up before kickoff. But when Noussair Mazraoui, “a Muslim, declined to follow the initiative on religious grounds … shortly before the match, it was decided that no player would wear the jackets,” noted the Times.
Like Ipswitch, the Manchester United team gave lip service to the “diversity and inclusion” mantra while allowing that “players are entitled to hold their own individual opinions … that may sometimes differ from the club’s position.”
The FA has not commented on Mazraoui’s “heresy.”
Referee Bias
The responses of players with conservative religious beliefs to LGBTQ-supportive attire put the lie to the FA’s assertion that it does not want players displaying religious or political messages. The movement that the armband represents — as exemplified by Stonewall — is extremely political, demanding, among other things, that government prevent perceived discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, eliminate single-sex spaces such as restrooms, and silence any dissenters from its agenda. It also requires total acquiescence to its moral (i.e., religious) claims about homosexuality and transgenderism.
What the FA wants, therefore, is to ensure that only the religious and political messages it endorses be displayed on the field — even if they offend those actually participating in the sport.
If the league insists on continuing down this road, the least it could do is enforce its policies evenhandedly. As Manchester United pointed out, “the principles of diversity and inclusion” ought to be demonstrated by “combat[ing] all forms of discrimination.”
