Kevin of Wizbang is taking the New York Times to task for dredging up some of the late Reggie White's less-than-shining moments, and he makes some good points.

Me, I just want to say that I never understood the outrage over some of Reggie's comments.

Regarding homosexuality, he said:

"We've allowed this sin [homosexuality] to run rampant in our nation, and because it has run rampant in our nation, our nation is in the condition it's in today."

The Bible DOES condemn homosexuality as a sin, so I'd EXPECT a Bible-believer to condemn it. Give him credit for not being a hypocrite.

In regards to race, he said:

Why did God create us differently? Why did God make me black and you white? Why did God make the next guy Korean and the next guy Asian and the other guy Hispanic? Why did God create the Indians?

Well, it's interesting to me to know why now. When you look at the black race, black people are very gifted in what we call worship and celebration. A lot of us like to dance, and if you go to black churches, you see people jumping up and down, because they really get into it.

White people were blessed with the gift of structure and organization. You guys do a good job of building businesses and things of that nature and you know how to tap into money pretty much better than a lot of people do around the world.

Hispanics are gifted in family structure. You can see a Hispanic person and they can put 20 or 30 people in one home. They were gifted in the family structure.

When you look at the Asians, the Asian is very gifted in creation, creativity and inventions. If you go to Japan or any Asian country, they can turn a television into a watch. They're very creative. And you look at the Indians, they have been very gifted in the spirituality.

When you put all of that together, guess what it makes. It forms a complete image of God.

His metaphors for the different races had at least SOME truth to them, and were at least marginally complimentary, even if they were incomplete, and I thought it was a nice (if somewhat clumsy) way to say that all races are the children of God.

As for defending Jimmy the Greek...

Retiring Green Bay Packer Reggie White in 1998 declared that Jimmy "The Greek" was correct, that "bigger slaves were pretty much used as studs,"

well... I admit to not knowing my pre-Civil-War history very well. Did slave owners NOT breed slaves for strength? Jimmy & Reggie say they did. The opposition doesn't deny it, they merely say that it's not polite to voice such opinions aloud.

Personally, I'm just going to remember Reggie for being one of the biggest reasons the Packers won Super Bowl 31 and brought glory back to Titletown.

And I'll continue to miss him as I have since the day he retired from the Packers.

Oh, and if you're bias-checking, I'm a white, atheist, Packers fan. Which facts may or may not influence my point of view. I'll let you decide that for yourself.

UPDATE 11PM 12-29-04: The full text of Reggie White's speech to the Wisconsin Legislature, link courtesy of Chris Lynch, sports guy of American Digest.

Posted by: Harvey at 08:10 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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