Tony Dungy – American Ignoramus
Tony Dungy is a former professional American football player and Super Bowl winning coach. During the season, he is televised nationally on NBC as part of their “game of the week” broadcast crew. If you watch the show, Tony Dungy is well spoken and intelligent. He obviously knows the intricacies of the game of football. But as we found out, this intelligence ends when the line between his job and his personal beliefs blurs and his opinions become public knowledge. Then his image becomes tarnished with the rust of ignorance and we see that he is not worthy of any of the accolades that we have bestowed upon him.
Dungy is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the son of educators. But he publicly chooses to ignore the truth. When has that ever mattered to the political right? Truth, science and acceptance are concepts they choose to overlook.
What did he do? In a tweet, Tony Dungy decided to ridicule people who identify as transgender. This has already been espoused by right wing believers criticizing the countries attempt at inclusivity. Dungy must have liked it because he just had to retweet it. He put out there that “some schools are providing litter boxes because some students are identifying as cats”. The callous disregard for so many fragile personalities, deserves to be punished or reprimanded and at the least fired from a position of national prominence. But, of course, he eventually deleted the tweet. Life went on as if it never happened.
Certain statistics for transgender people are staggering. 45% of kids that are transgender or nonbinary youth say that they have been bullied or harassed online. 24% of this harassment occurs at school. Anti-LGBTQ policies and talk have really frightened this community to the point that LGBTQ people feel isolated from mainstream society. 30% of transgender people do not feel safe going to see a doctor. Even if they are sick or injured. Tony Dungy’s tweet puts nearly 100,000 kids at risk.
NBC chose not to respond when asked about the tweet. In his apology, Dungy, stated “As a Christian, I should speak in love and in ways that are careful and helpful.” Of course, you should Tony. But Dungy also claims that homosexuality is against the ethics of his Christian beliefs. But what happens when your faith contradicts what it means to be a member of the human race? You have already made it clear on which side your allegiance lies. I just hope that your God approves of your decision, because humanity does not.
Christ did say, “love you neighbor as yourself.” This statement should not have qualifications. It would appear that Tony Dungy chose to disregard that part of the Christian faith. In fact, I feel many Christians have disregarded that, too.
