“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
He vowed to continue to protest until he feels like “[the American flag] represents what it’s supposed to represent.”
You know what happened next, right?
Kaepernick was voted the “most disliked” player in the NFL.
People posted videos of them burning his jerseys.
He was called “an embarrassment” and “a traitor”.
He was blamed for a significant drop in NFL television ratings, with fans boycotting the NFL because of his protest.
He received death threats.
Then, there’s Christianity on its knees.
It seems to me that Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick represent the two very different forms that American Christianity has come to.
And not just in America. In many parts of the world, it feels as though the church is separating into two versions, one that values personal piety, gentleness, respect for cultural mores, and an emphasis on moral issues like abortion and homosexuality, and another that values social justice, community development, racial reconciliation, and political activism.
One version is kneeling in private prayer. The other is kneeling in public protest.
One is concerned with private sins like abortion. The other is concerned with public sins like racial discrimination.
One preaches a gospel of personal salvation. The other preaches a gospel of political and social transformation.
One is reading the Epistles of Paul. The other is reading the Minor Prophets.
One is listening to Eric Metaxas and Franklin Graham. The other is listening to William Barber and John Perkins.
One is rallying at the March for Life. The other is getting arrested at Moral Monday protests.
You can see where this is going. The bifurcation of contemporary Christianity into two distinct branches is leaving the church all the poorer, with each side needing to be enriched by the biblical vision of the other.
Biblical Christianity should be, as Walter Brueggemann expresses it, “awed to heaven, rooted in earth.” We should, as he says, be able to both “join the angels in praise, and keep our feet in time and place.”
Sadly, with the suspicion and animosity shown toward each side of the divide by the other, I can’t see a coming together any time soon.
In the meantime, Christianity remains on its knees in the West.
**This post originally appeared on Mike Frost’s blog. It first appeared on faithit.com in 2017.
