In an April 24 op-ed in The Washington Examiner, columinst Gregory Kane used the recent case of a high school athlete who, citing religious reasons, refused to wrestle a female opponent to question whether or not “Christians, and Christianity, [are] on thin ice in this country.” He then went on to attack the student's critics by bringing up religious opposition to abortion and grotesquely stating, “Had Northrup's choice involved a fetus being sucked down a tube and shredded, most of his critics couldn't rush quickly enough to defend him.” From the article:

Once [Easter] Mass is over, I'll probably head home on this holiest of Christian holidays to ponder something I've been thinking about for quite some time:

Are Christians, and Christianity, on thin ice in this country? Probably not, but devout Christians face many more challenges than they used to. A couple of examples come immediately to mind.

In February, we had the case of 15-year-old Joel Northrup, a home-schooled lad living in Iowa who wrestled for Linn-Marr High School.

Northrup hails from a deeply religious family; his religious principles won't allow him to do certain things, like, for instance, wrestle members of the opposite sex. When he had to do so in the Iowa state tournament, he refused to wrestle and took a default loss instead.

After he cited religious reasons for making his decision, some of his critics sneered with derision. Usually, the sport of wrestling, either in high school or college, gets little to no coverage in the mainstream media.

[...]

And make no mistake about it: this controversy was about Northrup's religion, not his refusal to wrestle a girl. I've read all kinds of nonsense about Northrup, ranging from the allegation of his being a sexist to the silly notion that nowhere in the Bible does it say a guy wrestling against guys is OK either.

Isn't it a shame that many in this nation have become so nonreligious -- and downright anti-religious -- that they don't know the story of how Jacob wrestled an angle [sic] of God? Wrestling is the one sport that all but has biblical approval.

It's the same sort of ignorance about the Holy Scriptures that allows so-called pro-choice folks to claim -- and yes, one of them actually said this, and there are probably many who agree with her -- that there is nothing in the Bible that prohibits abortion.

It occurs to me the Fifth Commandment clearly says, “Thou shalt not kill.” If abortion isn't killing, then nothing is killing.

There's an appropriate parallel to what I wrote above and the Northrup situation. One of the kid's supporters -- and he has many, thank heavens -- defended Northrup based on his decision being his choice.

“Choice” is a sacred word to pro-choicers, unless, of course, you're making a choice of which they don't approve.

Had Northrup's choice involved a fetus being sucked down a tube and shredded, most of his critics couldn't rush quickly enough to defend him. [The Washington Examiner, 4/24/11]