Pro-Athlete Refuses to Kneel for BLM Citing His Christianity, Is Mocked

On Thursday, July 23rd, the San Francisco Giants played against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Before the game, they had a ribbon ceremony in which all the players held a black ribbon and knelt.  One player didn’t.

Pitcher Sam Coonrod stood tall while holding the ribbon with his teammates. 

“I meant no ill will by it,” Coonrod explained. “I’m a Christian. I just believe I can’t kneel before anything besides God — Jesus Christ.”

Coonrod was not disregarding black lives. But he doesn’t want to be forced to identify with an organization founded on anti-Christian, anti-American ideals. Patrise Cullers, a co-founder of BLM, explained that the creators of the organization “are trained Marxists.” 

“We are super-versed on ideological theories,” she said. “And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk.”

If you are unaware of what Marxism means, Oxford dictionary defines the term as, “The political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, later developed by their followers to form the basis for the theory and practice of communism.”

Well, then. Would you want to kneel for communist principles?  Though some believe the Black Lives Matter movement can be divorced from these roots, Coonrod didn’t want to support the Marxist beliefs upon which the “Black Lives Matter” movement was built. 

Thankfully, we live in America where we have freedom of speech, right?

Giants manager Gabe Kapler said, “The one thing that we said is we were going to let people express themselves. We were going to give them the choice on whether they were going to stand, kneel, or do something else. That was a personal decision for Sam.” 

Not everyone was as understanding as Kapler. Sportsmax highlighted some of the responses to Coonrod’s decision, with a headline which proclaimed, “Sam Coonrod’s decision to stand as controversial as Kaepernick’s decision to kneel.”

One reaction came from @process_this76 arguing that as a Christian, Coonrod should have wanted to spread unity and love by kneeling for a cause that supports equality.

“Sad part is, it should be an excuse for doing the exact opposite. Being a Christian means loving everybody no matter what. Imagine not wanting to “kneel” to fight for racial inequality… How racist you gotta be.”

But Coonrod didn’t cave.

“I meant no ill will by it,” he explained. “I don’t think I’m better than anyone,” later adding, “I chose not to kneel, I feel that if I did kneel, I would be being a hypocrite. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. Like I said, I didn’t mean any ill will toward anyone.”

It’s inspiring to see this man’s lonely stand.  This is especially courageous, since we know that Coonrod won’t be rewarded with a call from Nike, multi-million endorsement gigs, or accolades from the left. 

I, for one, am impressed by his willingness to take a stand, by literally taking a stand.

Hat Tip: The Daily Wire, Sportsmax.tv

Photo credit: Good Free Photos