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Sucker Punches
By kirk noonan | February 6, 2008
In January, Dana Jacobson, a co-host of ESPN First Take, reportedly said some things in an attempt to degrade Notre Dame football that went way out of bounds. Jacobson made her comments during a roast and spared little 
vulgarity and showed little respect for the Christian faith. Her comments netted her a short suspension from ESPN and she made an apology on air.
As word of Jacobson’s remarks spread, bloggers hopped on their bandwagons and started circling. Some full heartedly supported Jacobson — after all she was at a roast.
Yet others wondered what kind of punishment ESPN would have meted out to Jacobson if she had trained her verbal salvos on religions besides Christianity, or on homosexuals or minorities.
Would she have been fired?
Maybe, maybe not.
But Jacobson’s attack brings up an even better question: When people attack the Christian faith, God and or Jesus how should followers of Christ respond?
Topics: Culture, Entertainment |
February 8th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I did a brief search for Ms Jacobson’s comments at the roast, but gave up due to time constraints. I mention this because unless the comments are read in their full context by each and every Christian that is willing to take action, they can not be judged appropriately. That can be a problem because before you know it, rumors replace reality and words and meanings are left by the wayside while the speaker of said words becomes even more demonized than they perhaps deserve. It is an unfortunate truth that sometimes our freedom of religion clashes with our freedom of speech. Given that God has given us all free will, and our nation is a collection of free people, we are certain to have instances like this. The best we can do is to be vigilant and utilize our own free speech to let those that offend our beloved Jesus and our faith know that we do not accept their junk! I often attend functions that are likewise attended by professors and academics at a nearby university. It does not take long before someone begins to put down Christianity. Funny, they never put down Buddhism, humanism, Hinduism, Islam, animism or any other organized religion. I feel that it is my responsibility to speak up, to stand up and be heard regarding my faith. As you might guess, this never goes over very well and I find myself receiving fewer and fewer invitations to academic events. So, what is the answer? Perhaps us Christians should spend less time being content in our own faith, chapels and congregations and step out and let the world know what it is to be Christian. It is love, tolerance but righteous judgement and grace among other things. I really believe that it is ignorance that fuels this kind of lashing out against Christianity. I believe that so-and-so hears a negative comment about our faith and passes it on to so-an-so, and so on and so on… and not once do any of these ding dongs check facts for themselves. They follow someone elses submissions as if they are the last word. It takes work to find the truth by listening to all sides and considering different viewpoints.
If Jacobson or some other media or popular figure speaks out against our faith, perhaps we should voice our own opinion in letters to the editors, letters to media outlets, etc. Our voices can and will be heard, but they must be heard as loving voices of the world’s most awesome, truly fabulous and inviting faith. the faith in Jesus Christ. If we all become more visible, I don’t think it will take long before our society begins seeing Jesus Christ as savior and superstar. By using our own free and aggressive speech, we can and will be heard !
February 13th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, we certainly didn’t hear about it on the front page of our nation’s top newspapers, as we would have if the bashing going on was against another group other than the christian community!
March 24th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Good article. It is about time someone brought this to the forefront