The Sledge: Margaret Court – Hates Homosexuality, Lobsters

I find it such a shame when a high-profile, talented sportsperson turns out to be an embarrassing fool in their retirement. It takes the gloss from a fine sporting career. Ian Thorpe immediately springs to mind. Reduced from gold medalist and national hero to celebrity chef at Star City Casino and designer of underpants nobody bought. Or the NBL champ Latrell Sprewell, who blew through the more than 100 million he earned while playing, had his yacht and homes repossessed, tried to strangle a woman, and is now the number 1 delinquent taxpayer in Wisconsin, owing the state 3.5 million. Then there is Warrick Capper (a sportsman admittedly not in the same class as Thorpe or even Sprewell), who for a time handed out discount vouchers at the entrance to a Queensland amusement park. The list goes on and on. You can name any number of world-famous Australian, or American, or European athletes who ended up either broke (within two years of retirement, 78% of NFL players are bankrupt), hosting infomercials on a forgotten TV channel, competing on a reality TV show, in jail, or last but not least – discovering religion. George Foreman – one of the few successful examples of a retired athlete – did two of these five things, finding both religion and the George Foreman Grill (the latter earning him a tidy 200 million).

So in some ways it should come as no surprise when a sportsperson does something weird or regrettable in retirement. After all, they have lived their whole lives focused on one thing, doing all the training, playing, and travelling to excel at a singular pursuit, to the exclusion of all else. Once they reach the heights of success, they often know very little of that which the rest of us have learned just by living a normal life – the value of money, the avoidance of get-quick-rich schemes and snake oil salesmen, humility, a bit of common sense.

So it is also no surprise that Margaret Court – one of the greatest tennis players in history and winner of 24 singles Grand Slam titles – became a born-again Christian. Indeed, Court has become a Reverend in a fundamentalist Christian church, and she has started to speak out with some pretty extreme conservative views, in particular on homosexuality. Though while it is no surprise she has gone off the deep end, credulously following an ultraorthodox Christian dogma, it was somewhat unexpected that she has come out so strongly and so publically against gays. Surely Margaret would have known more than her fair share of homosexuals on the circuit; surely would have had a chance to befriend gay tennis players, had the chance to see that that they weren’t abominations or deviants – just regular tennis players like her, albeit with a different sexual preference.

But no, Margaret doesn’t like homosexuals. Actually, let correct that, she says she likes gays, but she just thinks that their sexual preference is evil and that they will rot in hell if they aren’t cured of being gay. Yes, cured. Because according to Margaret homosexuality is a choice (and by the use of the word ‘cured’ implies some sort of disease at the same time). The church Margaret helped to found (Perth's Victory Life Church) apparently has programs to help ‘cure’ people of being gay. I’m not exactly sure as I’ve never heard of this church before, but I am advised that Victory Life Church is one of those made-up sects the Protestants are allowed to invent. I tell you this, what those Protestants bloody well need is an iron-fisted Pope to keep them all in line. But I digress.

Anyway, Reverend Court says that she doesn’t like gay marriage because it would "legitimise what God calls abominable sexual practices". And what would this abomination be? Why, the big S of course, SODOMY. Ah, I see. Well Margaret, there is probably more than your fair share of straight couples out there with a passing familiarity with buggery, but let’s not get in to that discussion in detail. Court has said that Martina Navrátilová and other lesbian and bisexual players were ruining the sport of tennis and setting a bad example for younger players.The Reverend has also stated that: "The fact that the homosexual cry is, 'We can't help it as we were born this way', as the cause behind their own personal choice is cause for concern," she said. "Every action begins with a thought. There is a choice to be made”. I don’t know Margaret – did you choose to be a bigot, or were you just born that way?

Margaret Court has said that it isn’t personal, that she is merely expressing God's word, as taken literally from the Scriptures."I do not have anything against them. It's just my view and it's in the scriptures… the bible will always be the TV guide to my life”. Huh? TV guide? What does that mean? Coming up at 7.30 we have the stoning of an adulterer followed by the weather report: forecast cloudy with a chance of raining fishes; at 8.30, someone will commit patricide, then someone will beget someone else. But let’s go back to that statement about taking the bible literally. According the Margaret Court Church website, her congregation believes “The bible is the inspired, authoritative and infallible word of God”. Ok, now let’s roll with this for a second and see where this little path ends up.

It is true that the bible says that men should not get it on with other men (Leviticus 18:22), though I note the bible says nothing about woman-on-woman action (sweeeeeet). But what else does the bible (taken literally and infallibly) say? Well, let’s take a rundown of just a small sample of some Bibley goodness: 1) if anyone, even your own family suggests worshipping another God, kill them. (Deuteronomy 13:6-10); 2) If you find out another city worships a different god, destroy the city and kill all of its inhabitants… even the animals (Deuteronomy 13:12-15)(which to my mind means we better wipe out Bali soon); 3) you are not allowed to plant different crops on the same field, let different cattle graze together, or wear cloths made of more the one fabric (Leviticus 19:19). You can’t have communion if you have a flat nose, are blind or lame, or have eye or skin diseases (Leviticus 21:17-18). I guess that means that a lot of people in the boxing fraternity can’t go to heaven (sorry George – all that born again stuff seems sort of pointless now). By the way Margaret, does ‘skin disease’ include everything – like say thrush? And does someone have to stand at the church door and check for this stuff? No reason, just asking. A friend of mine wanted to know. 4) Another law states that disobedient children should be stoned to death (Exodus 21:15-17) (harsh in my opinion, but fair). 5) Slavery is allowed in the Bible, even encouraged. Just about everyone owns a slave, and one is even allowed to beat their slave. The bible is literal remember – so we can assume Margaret is pro-slavery but anti-gay.

And there’s one passage I have particular affection for:  you cannot eat crustaceans (Leviticus 11: 9-12). Indeed, as God would put it “whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination to you” – I hope no-one at Victory Church enjoys a good prawn cocktail Margaret.

But one of my favourite sections in the bible is this – it is even in the New Testament: (I Timothy 2: 11) “Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent”. Did you hear that Margaret – the Bible (the literal word of God) is telling you to STFU (that’s how the kids say shut the fuck up these days). And where do you get off telling gay men what to do? You don’t get to speak to men that way. You should be silent and submissive. Worse – you have made yourself a Reverend. I call that an abomination. How dare you teach or have authority in your church. With the power invested in me by the bible, I’m telling you to stop having an opinion. And while you’re at it, give that tabernacle a good spit and polish and then go bake me some scones.

Australian doubles player Rennae Stubbs, who is openly lesbian, has accused Court of directing hate towards homosexuals. Navrátilová and Billie Jean King have equally shared their displeasure, as have a number of prominent gay activists. They make the point that you cannot cure something that's not a disease or a problem, that the real problem is homophobia. Apparently, there was some rainbow flags unfurled just a few days ago at the Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open to protest against Court’s commentary. Given the usual form of protest at the Australian Open involves ethnic groups throwing flares at each other, a bit of rainbow flag-waving is a not unpleasant change.

It would be easy to dismiss Margaret Court as ignorant, largely because this is exactly what she is. But the thing is, when extreme views like this are aired, especially by someone who is so respected for her sporting achievements, it help to legitimize these sort of opinions. It gives people permission to say and believe in this sort of nonsense. Margaret Court can go to whatever church she likes and believe in any backward philosophy she cares to subscribe. But imposing those views on others by telling them what they can and cannot do is something else again. Vilifying people and making them feel ashamed of themselves is not worthy behaviour of an Australian sporting icon or, quite frankly, someone calling themselves a good Christian.

tim@makingthenut.com