Genuflection as protest
We take a knee in the church to express our faith. NFL players take a knee on the gridiron to express their impatience with injustice, writes Calvary Episcopal Church rector emeritus
Genuflection has its origins not in the medieval church but in the medieval court. Bending on one knee expressed obeisance to the monarch. The church, ever given to eclecticism, was quick to adopt the practice, reasoning that what was good for the king was good for the King of Heaven. Since then, genuflection has been a standard aerobic exercise in liturgical churches.
I grew up in a high-church Episcopal parish in New York, where we were taught by our acolyte master and by the clergy in confirmation class that genuflection is an act of reverence by which we displayed bodily our theological belief in the Real Presence. Accordingly, we genuflected upon entering and leaving our pews, acknowledging the Blessed Sacrament reserved at the high altar. Genuflection also has been a sign of reverence for the mystery of the Incarnation. Accordingly, the congregation “took the knee” at the words of the Creed “and became incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”
But the topic here is what we might dub “genuflection on the gridiron.” For we must recognize that football has a sacred liturgy of its own, complete with rites, rubrics, colorful vestments, participants playing various roles, masters of ceremonies, musicians and a choir and congregation that intone prescribed chants.
During the past several weeks, many football players have inserted into the liturgy an unauthorized ceremony. They have dared to genuflect at a place where there was no rubrical provision or even a pious custom that permitted it. They have “taken the knee” during the singing of the national anthem. Their actions have caused some fans’ blood pressure to skyrocket and NFL box office receipts to plummet. The president of the United States was so irate that he referred to any offending player as a “son of a bitch” (a shocking utterance even for one who is no stranger to crassness) and demanded they be fired forthwith.
Why have football players resorted to genuflecting on the field? Listen to the words of Eric Reid, protest-leader Colin Kaepernick’s former teammate on the San Francisco 49ers. In a New York Times op-ed piece, he wrote an apologia for the practice adopted by himself and his fellow genuflectors:
“In early 2016, I began paying attention to reports about the incredible number of unarmed black people being killed by the police. ... [F]urious, hurt and hopeless, I wanted to do something, but didn’t know what or how to do it. All I knew for sure is that I wanted it to be as respectful as possible. ... We came to the conclusion that we should kneel rather than sit the next day during the anthem, as a peaceful protest.”
Pay particular attention to three statements in Mr. Reid’s piece.
The first is that the body language chosen by him and Mr. Kaepernick was kneeling (genuflection) because it was respectful. The posture was not kneeling on both knees, an act of supplication. Nor was it a clenched fist, which would have conveyed defiance, or sitting, which would have conveyed indifference. The posture chosen was genuflection, an action that has long been associated with devotion and veneration.
The second point was that Mr. Reid and other players have been staging a protest — a protest against the stark reality that young black males in our society are disproportionately the victims of violence at the hands of law enforcement. This contempt toward black men has given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement, founded on the countercultural belief that black lives, like all lives, have intrinsic selfworth.
Third, Mr. Reid wrote that he is baffled that many have interpreted their actions as a protest against the nation, the flag and those who fought and died under the flag. To the contrary, he argued: “It has always been my understanding that the brave men and women who fought and died for our country did so to ensure that we could live in a fair and free society, which includes the right to speak out in protest. I love my country,” he added, “but, to quote James Baldwin, exactly for that reason, I insist on the right to criticize her.”
To paraphrase Mr. Reid, then: “I cannot in good conscience and with integrity stand and sing a national anthem whose words do not speak to the experience of America’s black citizens. Instead, I kneel in the hope that one day I may rise and give full-throated assent to the words of the anthem in harmony with my fellow Americans.”
Let us look at the broader picture. And remember: The right to peaceful protest is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. There is an inherent irony, therefore, in the objections made by some, including the president, to the actions of the genuflectors.
To justify his objections, President Donald Trump has persistently and disingenuously refused to acknowledge the stated purpose of the protest, namely to decry the endemic racism in our society which has often resulted in the extrajudicial execution of black men. Mr. Trump’s infuriating tweets and bombastic comments from his bully pulpit purposely have been crafted to convey the impression that the genuflectors’ intent was to denigrate the flag, blaspheme the nation and impugn the memory of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Why do the genuflectors, or any protestors, protest? First, to bring attention to what they see as an injustice.
In 1963, I took part in a demonstration at the construction site of the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, to publicize the fact that the construction industry was not hiring black workers. When the trucks arrived to pour concrete, we demonstrators, singing “black and white together, we shall not be moved,” lay down in front of the trucks, stopping them and achieving our second objective: to wake up the company by causing it economic distress.
As the demonstrations continued, the construction industry determined that it was cheaper in the long run to hire black workers than to face bankruptcy. It eventually relented and hired black workers: Our third and ultimate goal had been reached.
The same strategies could be seen at work in the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956, which ultimately led to the desegregation of public transportation in the South, and in the imposition of sanctions against firms doing business in South Africa, which contributed mightily to the dismantling of apartheid.
Many citizens have objected to demonstrations and protests, even if nonviolent, because they find them to be unseemly or disruptive. But protests are by definition messy. They are inconvenient by design.
What was messier than the Boston Tea Party, when 342 chests of tea were sent to the bottom of Boston harbor by the Sons of Liberty to protest the monopoly enjoyed by the Dutch East India company? If Montgomery’s affluent homemakers were not inconvenienced by the fact that their maids couldn’t get to work during the bus boycott, would that protest have been a success? Would independence have come to South Africa when it did if its economy had not suffered as a result of sanctions? Those who believe their patriotic sensibilities have been offended by genuflecting players should give some thought to the excruciating pain suffered by families whose sons have died while in police custody.
Remember, in the history of the world, no oppressed minority has been relieved of its suffering because members of the oppressive majority woke up one morning and said, “We have been so unfair for so long. Let us give full and equal rights to X.” Rather, change has been wrought and freedom won because an oppressed minority has fought tirelessly on its own behalf, usually with allies.
In the Oxford dictionary, the second definition for “genuflect” is: “Show deference or servility. ‘Politicians had to genuflect to the far left to advance their careers.’” Switch that to “far right” and Donald Trump can be called a genuflector.
Mr. Trump, by lambasting the NFL, by sympathizing with violent white-supremacist protesters in Charlottesville, Va., by labeling Mexicans rapists and attempting to build a wall to keep them out of the country, by mercilessly badgering a pregnant Gold Star widow who dared to criticize him, is genuflecting to his base, certain members of which then feel emboldened to emerge from the shadows and promote racist agendas.
Two former presidents and three sitting Republican senators recently raised in public serious questions about the direction of this presidency. Will members of our faith emerge from the shadows and have something to say, carrying the Cross of Jesus, “going on before,” or will they follow, mute and sheepish, “with the Cross of Jesus, bringing up the rear”?