My preferences aside, the Redskins are the focus of a firestorm of late because their name offends or might offend some, so they say we have to worry about that. It's not that certain factions have gotten into this name game; it's that the Federal Government, with all it has to worry about has weighed in on the subject, thus politicizing sports, like it politicizes everything else. Harry Reid spoke out against the team's nickname from the Senate floor, but he's not the only one.
Now, the current administration, acting through the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is getting seriously involved. Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC decries the name, referring in his statement to "the Washington football club," thus refusing to sully his lips with the offending word. What prompted Wheeler's involvement is a petition filed by (who else) a law professor named John Banzhaf III at George Washington University, an institution so rocked by scandal that "US News and World Report" removed it from its list. This law teacher has quite a reputation; they say that he's never met a lawsuit he doesn't like."
The Professor
In his petition to the FCC, the professor says that "Redskins" is "hate speech," and says that any station consistently using the word should, by law, lose their license. (Somehow, the First Amendment comes to mind.) The professor is no dummy because he knows something many of us don't--the owner of the Washington "team" (I hesitate to say its name for fear of disturbing the gentle reader), Daniel Snyder, owns a radio station dedicated to Washington Redskins news and comments.
The Owner Ah, ha! There it is! If Banzhaf's suit becomes law, that means the owner of the team won't be able to use the his team's name on the air, and, as the professor said, "He'll have to change the team name or go broke." Thus, a businessman (sports is a business) will be driven from his business because he can't say the name of his business. This sounds weird, doesn't it, but that's the world we live in, a world in which an athletic team dare not say its name.
All this seems so new doesn't it? Or is it? We can thank Harry Truman for the following statement: "The only thing new to you is the history you don't know." The thing is, what the professor wants to do isn't new. The professor is in nefarious historical company because way back when, an official governing body not only tried, but also actually did, what the professor is trying to do.
A doctor way back then, records for history the successful official banning of one word as hate speech. Those who banned the word were members of "the Council," and Luke writes about the censoring in Acts 4:17-18 when the Council declared: "But so that it [the miracle] will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them [Peter and John] to speak no longer to any man in this name.” And when they had summoned them [Peter and John], they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus."
There it is: they banned the word, "Jesus." Censor that one word and the proclamation of the gospel collapses because there's no way to disseminate the good news without saying "Jesus." The courageous disciples said, "No way," and the rest is history.
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