I remember David Tyree for his famous "Helmet Catch" which enabled the New York Giants to win a Super Bowl. The Giants were trailing; it was 3rd down and 5 yards to go late in the 4th quarter when Giants quarterback Eli Manning, playing the part of Houdini, escaped a gang of would-be tacklers to sling the ball way, way down field, a ball which Tyree caught by pinning the pigskin to his helmet as he fell to the ground. It was now 1st down with 59 seconds left in Super Bowl XLII. The Giants won, 17-14.
David Tyree was the toast of the Big Apple and loved by Giants' fans everywhere.
But that was then, this is now.
David Tyree is not so admired today. He's the center of a storm, as is the team for which he played. The owner, the General Manager, and the coach find themselves in a mushrooming maelstrom of controversy, a public relations nightmare as they read their names in "The New York Times,"in hositle name-calling articles on the Internet, and hear themselves vilified by commentators on ESPN, MSNBC, "The View," and in "The New York Post," as well as other newspapers around the country. All this because of hiring the hero of Giantdom, David Tyree.
What did Tyree do? Molest children? Sell secrets to the Chinese? Spy for the Russians? No, not at all. David Tyree had the gall to say, "Marriage is between a man and woman." And in spite of that statement, the NY Giants have hired the retired player to take the job of Director of Players Management in their organization. Various groups are demanding that Tyree be fired. It's like pressure washing a house--all the blasts of the water are now laser focused on Tyree and the Giants and it won't let up until they drown him. The mortar fire against this hiring includes saying and writing that Tyree is "misinformed," "ignorant," and, (get this) "dangerous."
Over the past three years, Tyree has stated his beliefs with the following statements:
"This [same sex marriage]will be the beginning of our country sliding toward, it's a strong word, but anarchy. How can marriage
be marriage for thousands of years and now all the sudden because a
minority, an influential minority, has a push or agenda ... and totally
reshapes something that was not founded in our country.”
In 2011, Tyree said the unforgivable:
“Nothing means more to me than that my God would be honored. Being
the fact that I firmly believe that God created and ordained marriage
between a man and a woman, I believe that that’s something that should
be fought for at all costs. So I’ll lay down everything I am to preserve the honor and integrity of the God that I serve.”
In 2013, he said:
"I
don't agree with [gay marriage] because God doesn't agree with it. As a
Christian, I don't agree. Society may be changing but God is not, This is not personal. I can be tolerant, but the problem is
people aren't tolerant of the views people like me have. If you don't
agree with that lifestyle, you're a bigot. I'm not a bigot. I have
different viewpoints."
David Tyree isn't killing, rampaging, destroying property or even advocating such. He's not demanding that anyone believing in same sex marriage be fired. All he's doing is telling others what he believes.
It's come to this?--someone in America is in danger of losing his job for saying that marriage is between a man and a woman? As the little boy pleaded with Shoeless Joe Jackson of the Chicago White Sox in 1919, "Say it ain't so, Joe." How did it come to this? (That's a question for another time.)
If we're going to fire people for stating a belief that offends, then tomorrow what's next? Unemployment would skyrocket and breadlines and soup kitchens would materialize overnight if people were fired for saying something that offended somebody else.
This is like saying, "You have freedom of speech, as long as you say things that we approve of." It's strange that Thomas Jefferson didn't understand that the right not to be offended was "unalienable," since he only listed "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in that category when he wrote our Declaration of Independence.
A reddish sky around sunrise means a lot of water vapor already present in the atmosphere. That's why those in the nautical game have the saying, "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." Rain is on the way. (Cf. Matt. 16:3) What is our "red sky" saying to us? It's going to get rough out there as witness the following: "Police in Fayetteville are on the lookout for a man who allegedly said
something racist in the middle of the night through an open window on
the University of Arkansas campus." Something said in the middle of the night through an open window is a crime?
If Tyree can be fired for his belief and his use of freedom of speech to express his view, then who's next? Will they nail a church door shut or levy a fine with sensitivity training because that church won't allow a same sex marriage ceremony in its building? Will someone overhear your remark in the elevator at work and you find yourself sentenced to sensitivity training or, worse yet, be told to turn in your I. D. and leave? If one person can lose his employment, his property, or his means of earning a living for stating his belief, then you and I can too. [By the way, has anyone ever heard of a person's being sentenced to sensitivity training for offending Christians? I nominate Bill Maher.]
Tom Brokaw wrote "The Greatest Generation," which, in his opinion was the generation of Americans who were raised in the Great Depression and went on to fight and win WWII. They were great, all right, but were they the greatest? I don't think so and neither does historian David McCullough. He believes that the greatest generation of Americans was the Revolutionary War generation. (That would make for a good discussion, wouldn't it?)
One thing the Revolutionary generation and our Founding Fathers realized was that if the government could do just one thing to violate the Constitution, it could do anything. For example, if the government could impose an unconstitutional tax on the people, no matter how small the amount of tax was, the same government could just as easily line people up and executre them without due process of law.
it's an interesting study of hypocrisy--in the 1960's many colleges saw their students marching, disrupting classes, demonstrating, yelling, and getting violent in order to exercise their right of free speech to say anything anywhere anytime. Now those same people are demanding that David Tyree shut up and be fired.
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