We think Ron Brown, the assistant coach for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s football team, might have gotten tackled one too many times.
How else would you explain why someone who doesn’t even live in Omaha—and who’s career has nothing to do with politics or civic service—thinks they’re justified in coming before the Omaha City Council to testify against a proposed ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity?
Is he worried he wouldn’t be able to call his players screaming Marys when they fumble?
“As a Christian, and as a citizen, I believe I have the responsibility to stand for what I believe in,” Brown (right) said Thursday. “I’m firm on my stance… For those of you on this council who have a relationship with Christ, and only you know if you do, you will be held to great accountability for the decision you make.” he said.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Trying to explain why he was nosing into city business, Brown explained “I was there because I realize that protection of one group of people as a class is going to unprotect another group.”
Maybe the council was confused: During his testimony, Brown facetiously gave his address as Omaha’s Memorial Stadium, where the Cornhuskers play. He also leads Nebraska’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes and runs FreedMen Nebraska, a statewide Evangelical ministry.
Queerty reader John Carroll, who tipped us off to this story, is a Cornhuskers season ticket holder and dashed off an email to the school relaying his disappointment over the whole situation:
To hear Coach Brown, a representative of the University of Nebraska, use God and Jesus to argue against providing gays and lesbians protection from people that would harm them in the work place is beyond the pale. It makes me wonder what would happen if one of the football players came out. Would he bench them? Would he recommend kicking them off the team? I know former players that are gay. Has the University ever once asked them what it was like hiding in plain sight?
Mr. Brown’s veiled threat was particularly galling, “The question I have for you, like Pontius Pilate, is: ‘What are you going to do with Jesus?’ For those of you on this council who have a relationship with Christ, and only you know if you do, you will be held to great accountability for the decision you make.”
Coach Brown is a religious bully and has a history of using the University as his pulpit all the while disguising it as “motivational speaking.” No one can deny the impact that Coach Brown has had on young men from tough backgrounds. However, that cannot come at the expense of other kids, namely gay and transgendered kids.
If Mr. Brown insists on exercising his first amendment rights all the while spewing anti-gay rhetoric and threats of eternal damnation, please have him use his own address in the future. We should never hear in a public forum the words Memorial Stadium and sinner in the same speech.
Brown’s bosses at the U of Nebraska-Lincoln released a statement yesterday condemning his testimony, but only because he didn’t make it clear he was speaking for himself and not as a representative of the school.
Oh we just can’t with these people anymore.
Source: Omaha Journal Star
Hyhybt
“For those of you on this council who have a relationship with Christ, and only you know if you do, you will be held to great accountability for the decision you make.”
An excellent reason to vote in favor of anti-discrimination laws.
“Brown’s bosses at the U of Nebraska-Lincoln released a statement yesterday condemning his testimony, but only because he didn’t make it clear he was speaking for himself and not as a representative of the school.”
Makes sense, actually.
Jessica
Let me get this straight…. A black man is against “protection of one group of people as a class” REALLY??? Where the hell would he be in life if those same protections hadn’t been afforded to his ancestors!!! Double standard bullshit!!!!!!
Vic
No such newspaper as the “Omaha Journal Star”
I disagree vehemently with Brown’s views, but I also disagree vehemently with the notion expressed in this column that he should not speak his mind. Free speech makes this country great, and in this case it exposes him as the nut case that he is.
The Real Mike in Asheville
@Jessica: While I fully agree with your sentiment, the hypocrisy is even worse considering discrimination reform happened with his parents, not his ancestors. The plight of his ancestors is a very dark history of enslavement and violence, overcome, finally, by his parents/grandparents so that his life would be better. Thats worse as he himself is a direct beneficiary of long-waited “protection of one [his ethnicity] group of people.”
Yeah, he is one shithead hypocrite.
Hyhybt
Parents aren’t ancestors?
QueerNE
I’m a gay student at UNL, and I have heard that the athletics department is actually very uninclusive to LGBT students (not that I have any desire to affiliate with them, but others might). Our fear is that the state’s and department’s climate is already such that no one will care too much about it. Nebraska is generally the capital of complacency
SeattleHusker
Great to see this story is making the rounds. It definitely sucks that it happened in the first place, but I’m glad to see that Ron Brown isn’t going to get away with this one without drawing a lot of attention.
For those of you that are interested, I emailed the university Wednesday night and got the following response from an assistant to the athletic director (Tom Osborne). It was pretty half-assed and generic. In these times, we should certainly expect better.
——————————–
Dear Brian,
I’m sorry that you’ve been offended by Ron Brown’s comments. I can assure you that Ron’s comments are reflective of his own views and do not represent those of the Athletic Department or the University.
His listing his address as One Memorial Stadium was not in keeping with what we would expect and I have addressed this with him.
Thank you for taking time to write.
Best wishes,
Tom Osborne
——————————-
Jim Hlavac
The numbers of Jesus-freaks who used the Bible to condone, even luxuriate in, slavery is rather lengthy. The pulpits and city councils of the late 1700s to mid 1800s are replete with such condemnations of ever allowing a black man a place at the table. Perhaps the good coach should examine the archives at the university for the rampant preaching against black folks as “evil” “natural sinners” and many other such phrases regarding his own “class” of people. Actually, to me, the only “class” that matters is “Americans” and I don’t recall Jesus picking out which Americans to discriminate against. Nor do I recall Jesus ever uttering a word saying remotely resembling “discriminate” against this one or that one as a class — but Jesus is rather clear in his inclusive “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Pretty clear to me. Too bad the coach is still blind to reality.
Gabriel
“Brown’s bosses at the U of Nebraska-Lincoln released a statement yesterday condemning his testimony, but only because he didn’t make it clear he was speaking for himself and not as a representative of the school”
That’s not exactly true. As reported on the blog AKSARBENT, the statement released by UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman affirmed the school’s non-discrimination policy: “The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska has made it clear that the university does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.”
And it’s The Lincoln Journal-Star. Omaha’s paper is the World-Herald.
Belize
I pity God. God always gets blamed for the stupidity of other people just because of the Bible–quite possible the dumbest press release written in the history of man.
Danny
Working on the Sabbath is punishable by death according to the bible (Exodus 35:2) because keeping the Sabbath holy is one of the Ten Commandments, but he routinely works on the Sabbath so he never brings that biblical requirement up. He is a hypocrite, and Jesus said hypocrites and pharisees can never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Everyone can chant hypocrite at him whenever they see him. He wants to judge others so the bible requires he be judged for his blatant unChristian hypocrisy.
Tom in Lazybrook
Thanks Danny for bring up the fact that all of the players in the NFL are violating the Bible. Or, if they are Adventists, they do so while in College.
But remember, the Fellowship of “Christian” Athletes (or as I called them at my high school, Fellowship of Christian Bullies) and their college counterpart, the Intervarsity Fellowship, teaches the athletes that they can do as they please, so long as they wear fundamentalism on their shirtsleeves and always oppose dignity for Gay persons.
jason
Ron Brown is a black douchebag. Imagine if someone said that black people are sinners and do not deserve protection from discrimination.
Maybe Ron should be tied in chains and made to work on a cotton field – he might change his tune pretty quick.
"I have addressed this with him"
If another employee had spoken in favor of racist discrimination and pretended to be the university, would this have been “addressed with him?”
More than likely, he’d have been lucky to keep his job, and would have been subject to extreme disciplinary action including unpaid suspension (at a minimum).
As if you needed more of a reason to avoid the godforsaken Midwest…
Andy
Another Christer lunatic.
redball
go here to admire his HOT FAT MUSCLE ASS & muscle bod: http://www.towleroad.com/2012/03/nebraska-coach-ron-brown-criticized-for-anti-gay-rant-in-omaha.html
you’re welcome 🙂
yeah and he pretty much sucks otherwise.
HM
The latest in a long, sad line of homophobia perpetrated by…..African Americans.
And black leaders have been too quiet about that fact.
The gay community would be the first to stand united against injustice to black Americans. Can we expect the same support? Or are African Americans assuming they’ve found a group that has to sit farther back in the bus than them?
KyleW
@jason: Ummm, isn’t that what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe? mark of Cain and all that nonsense?
Dubhlinn
Ron Brown is an activist proselytizer and needs to sign some sort of cease and desist agreement or look for another job. He is way too “in-your-face.”. I honestly don’t see him changing.
rynomite
The address 1 Memorial Stadium is at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Lincoln, the capital city. The Lincoln Journal-Star is the statewide paper in Lincoln. The Omaha World-Herald is the statewide paper in Omaha. Omaha and its metro area is the largest city in Nebraska. 🙂 On Husker gameday 1 Memorial Stadium is the third-largest “city” or population center in the state w/ about 90k. Omaha metro has a little over 1 million people, Lincoln has 250k.