Responses to Michael Sam coming out have been divided within the NFL, with many saying they’d support him as is, while others have claimed that it would be difficult to share a locker room with a gay player. However, Washington Redskins backup quarterback Kirk Cousins recently discussed the issue of gays in the NFL and claimed that he’d like to teach them about Christianity and Jesus.
According to MLive.com, Cousins, who is a devout Christian, recently spoke at NorthPointe High School in Grand Rapids, Mich., and he told the crowd that he’d accept any player as long as they can help his team win.
“So from a football standpoint, if the guy can help us win, come help us win,” Cousins said, who then equated homosexuality with sin. “Now, there are a lot of teammates in my locker room right now who may not have a homosexual lifestyle, but they have sins, too. They’re not perfect. So I don’t say they can’t help us win. Nobody’s perfect.”
Cousin’s continued to paint himself in a homophobic light as he explained that he’d like to show any gay teammates the real way to follow Jesus.
“To that degree, we’d welcome him into our locker room and say come help us win, and hopefully I can love him like Jesus and hopefully show him what it means to follow Jesus,” said Cousins, implying that homosexuality is a choice.
Cousins previously talked about gay athletes in sports last year when Jason Collins, who recently signed to the Brooklyn Nets, came out as gay. At the time, Cousins told MLive.com that it was a very sensitive topic.
“I think we need to show love to every single person on this Earth,” he said in the story. “Jesus showed love to everybody, and whether it was Mary Magdalene, who was a prostitute [and] had seven demons inside her, he showed love to her, and he didn’t have a problem with her.”
Although it doesn’t seem like Cousin’s comments come from a malicious place, it does appear that, in his mind, Christianity and homosexuality are mutually exclusive and that one must magically choose to be heterosexual to be a true Christian. Clearly, though, there are many LGBT people who proudly practice Christianity. And if there was any message that Jesus really tried to drive home to his followers, it is that love is the lens we should use to see people, not hate, stereotypes, phobias or our own ideas about how another person should exist. There is nothing wrong with Sam. He is loved and all right as he is. – nicholas robinson
