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No media glory to God at the London games
By Michael Coren
August 24, 2012
Michael Coren
We hear far too much about celebrities who describe themselves as Catholic, but then when we undo the wrapper we find a very soft centre indeed. They attend “progressive” or “inclusive” churches, which is a euphemism for non-Catholic, ultra-liberal and obsessed with the gay issue, being, of course, obsessed from a pro-homosexual standpoint.
Internationally as well as in Canada, “sort of” Catholics, plastic Catholics, cafeteria Catholics who have any sort of public attention are held up as examples, which is so very sad. Then comes the real thing, but they don’t receive the same attention. Take the great, the truly great, Manny Pacquiao, arguably the finest pound-for-pound boxer in history. He is a modest, humble, compassionate and highly intelligent man who is now an elected politician in the Philippines. He is also a steadfast Roman Catholic. He supports the Catholic bishops against the reproductive health bill that would push funded contraception on a people who deserve much better.
Most Filipinos oppose the bill and support Pacquiao, but President Benigno Aquino enjoys great and well-financed backing, naturally, from opinion-shapers in the United States, Britain and Canada. What the chattering classes in New York, London and Toronto believe to be correct is suddenly not mere opinion but established truth. And anyway, as one Ottawa journalist told me, “what do I care about what some boxer thinks about anything?” Quite so. Ah, if only the whole thing could be sorted out in a ring.
Or, perhaps, around the track. Continuing the sports and religion line, commentators were extraordinarily quiet in mentioning the Christian faith of so many medal winners at the London Olympics. The couple of women competing in hijabs were lauded as pioneers of religious liberty, but Usain Bolt’s tweet that everything was due to God and the frequent prayers of thanks after victory from myriad athletes went generally ignored.
Which brings us to Meseret Defar. This remarkable Ethiopian woman won the gruelling 5,000 metres race, has won previous gold medals and set several world records. She’s an athlete of almost unparalleled accomplishment, and ran this race, and has run others, carrying a cloth icon of Our Lady and the baby Jesus — she is a devout member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. After she crossed the finish line, she took out the icon, kissed it repeatedly, knelt on the ground and kissed it again, and then held it up to the camera several times in obvious praise and gratitude.
The commentary was hilarious. First commentator: “Look, aaah!” The “aaah” spoken as if she had just blown a kiss to the crowd or hugged a tiny doll. Second commentator: “There’s obviously a message in there somewhere isn’t there?” First commentator: “Well there’s a strong Christian community in Ethiopia.” Second commentator: “Yes, yes, and I think that was the ... err ... what we saw there.” Yes, I think it might just have been.
A lot of this is simply ignorance and shock of course, in that sports commentators are probably confused by genuine Christian witness. But what was noticed by them was that at so many of the medal ceremonies a young lady in a purple hijab was present, even though Muslims represent less than five per cent of the British population. An accident or coincidence? Oh please. Muslims do dominate, however, the number of countries who refuse to participate in the Olympic spirit and will not compete with Israel, or refuse to allow women to compete, either completely or in any meaningful sense. A terrified Saudi girl, who had been in judo for less than two years, was a meagre blue belt and was brought in at the last moment as a token to satisfy the Olympic committee, was an utter disgrace.
So, media and officialdom is biased, and in the case of Manny Pacquiao, totally subjective. No surprise there. We’d do well to remember the Christian heroes from the Olympic Games, and sports in general, and the line from the Christian sprinter Eric Liddle in Chariots of Fire. “When I run,” he said, “I feel God’s pleasure.” We praise Him in so many ways.
Internationally as well as in Canada, “sort of” Catholics, plastic Catholics, cafeteria Catholics who have any sort of public attention are held up as examples, which is so very sad. Then comes the real thing, but they don’t receive the same attention. Take the great, the truly great, Manny Pacquiao, arguably the finest pound-for-pound boxer in history. He is a modest, humble, compassionate and highly intelligent man who is now an elected politician in the Philippines. He is also a steadfast Roman Catholic. He supports the Catholic bishops against the reproductive health bill that would push funded contraception on a people who deserve much better.
Most Filipinos oppose the bill and support Pacquiao, but President Benigno Aquino enjoys great and well-financed backing, naturally, from opinion-shapers in the United States, Britain and Canada. What the chattering classes in New York, London and Toronto believe to be correct is suddenly not mere opinion but established truth. And anyway, as one Ottawa journalist told me, “what do I care about what some boxer thinks about anything?” Quite so. Ah, if only the whole thing could be sorted out in a ring.
Or, perhaps, around the track. Continuing the sports and religion line, commentators were extraordinarily quiet in mentioning the Christian faith of so many medal winners at the London Olympics. The couple of women competing in hijabs were lauded as pioneers of religious liberty, but Usain Bolt’s tweet that everything was due to God and the frequent prayers of thanks after victory from myriad athletes went generally ignored.
Which brings us to Meseret Defar. This remarkable Ethiopian woman won the gruelling 5,000 metres race, has won previous gold medals and set several world records. She’s an athlete of almost unparalleled accomplishment, and ran this race, and has run others, carrying a cloth icon of Our Lady and the baby Jesus — she is a devout member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. After she crossed the finish line, she took out the icon, kissed it repeatedly, knelt on the ground and kissed it again, and then held it up to the camera several times in obvious praise and gratitude.
The commentary was hilarious. First commentator: “Look, aaah!” The “aaah” spoken as if she had just blown a kiss to the crowd or hugged a tiny doll. Second commentator: “There’s obviously a message in there somewhere isn’t there?” First commentator: “Well there’s a strong Christian community in Ethiopia.” Second commentator: “Yes, yes, and I think that was the ... err ... what we saw there.” Yes, I think it might just have been.
A lot of this is simply ignorance and shock of course, in that sports commentators are probably confused by genuine Christian witness. But what was noticed by them was that at so many of the medal ceremonies a young lady in a purple hijab was present, even though Muslims represent less than five per cent of the British population. An accident or coincidence? Oh please. Muslims do dominate, however, the number of countries who refuse to participate in the Olympic spirit and will not compete with Israel, or refuse to allow women to compete, either completely or in any meaningful sense. A terrified Saudi girl, who had been in judo for less than two years, was a meagre blue belt and was brought in at the last moment as a token to satisfy the Olympic committee, was an utter disgrace.
So, media and officialdom is biased, and in the case of Manny Pacquiao, totally subjective. No surprise there. We’d do well to remember the Christian heroes from the Olympic Games, and sports in general, and the line from the Christian sprinter Eric Liddle in Chariots of Fire. “When I run,” he said, “I feel God’s pleasure.” We praise Him in so many ways.
Michael Coren