The Sports Grouch

I played after school soccer as a kid and loved it. All that running burned off energy pent up during class.

But something is going on in soccer that makes me feel ill.

We live in a so-called free society with growing intolerance and a double-standard. There are forces who want to force their morality on the rest of us – especially if we are Christians.

Consider the case of fundamentalist Christian Jaelene Hinkle, argubly women’s soccer’s best left back.

Jaelene got into trouble for refusing to wear a U.S. Soccer team jersey emblazoned with rainbow numbers in support of LGBT rights.

Jaelene left the team because “I just felt so convicted in my spirit that it wasn’t my job to wear this jersey.”

“I gave myself three days to just seek and pray and determine what He was asking me to do,” she said. “I knew I was doing the right thing. If I never get another national team call-up again then that’s just a part of His plan and that’s okay. Maybe this is why I was meant to play soccer, to show other believers to be obedient.”

True to herself

After revealing her feelings on the 700 Club, Jaelene became a cult figure on the religious right.

When her North Carolina Courage played the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League, Oregon fans and supporters of gay rights waved Pride flags and booed her.

Jaelene remained unaffected by the jeering. Last year, she was asked to play before the Tournament of Nations. Despite Jaelen’s credentials, there were concerns about her potentially disruptive presence on a squad where some of the most prominent players and head coach Jill Ellis are gay.

Three days into training camp, Jaelene was cut for “footballing reasons.” Critics say her swift removal was a legal ploy to protect US Soccer from a lawsuit.

A year later, Ellis brought her team to France with a chance of retaining the World Cup. She did so without a left back with Jaelene’s gifts.

“As Christians we don’t begin to throw a tantrum over what was made into law today but that we become much more loving,” she wrote on Instagram the day the US Supreme Court legalized gay marriage.

“The rainbow was a covenant made between God and all his creation that never again would the world be flooded as it was when He destroyed the world. It’s a constant reminder that no matter how corrupt the world becomes He will never leave or forsake us.”

The Sports Grouch welcomes your emails at ChnicleSports@yahoo.com .