A Southern Baptist newspaper editor said an editorial June 21 that he takes offense when he hears people describe boxing legend Muhammad Ali as an American hero.
“Ali, who died recently, did some good things during his lifetime and he certainly may have been one of the greatest boxers of all time, but it’s hard for me to call him an American hero,” opined Lonnie Wilkey, editor of the Baptist and Reflector newspaper in Tennessee.
Lonnie Wilkie
“He dodged the draft for the Vietnam War,” the 58-year-old editor continued. “Yes, it was an unpopular war, but it was our country’s war. Many others probably did not want to fight either, but they went. A lot of them never returned home and some of those who did returned without various parts of their bodies. They are the heroes.”
Wilkey included his thoughts on the heavyweight champion and humanitarian in a laundry list of offenses endured daily by members of the so-called politically incorrect.
Among them, in his first editorial since the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution disavowing the Confederate flag, Wilkey said he is offended “when people want to ‘rewrite’ history or in some cases ‘eliminate’ events because they are offensive to today’s world.”
“There are those today who want to take photos off walls or pictures off our currency because they once owned slaves,” Wilkey wrote. “Yes, slavery is wrong but at one time it was an accepted practice. That doesn’t make it right but ignoring it ever happened, or punishing those who condoned it then (and have been dead for more than a century), does nothing now. Rather, history should be preserved to serve as a reminder that slavery was wrong and it should never happen again.”
Wilkey said he hates it when he hears people take the name of the Lord in vain, but it happens every day. He is also offended by cursing in public when women and children are present.
“The hair on the back of my neck stood up when our nation’s highest court decided last year they knew more than the Bible and redefined marriage to allow homosexual marriage,” Wilkey said. “I’m offended knowing that a man can now claim that he identifies himself as a woman and can go into a restroom where my wife and daughter might be.”
“I’m offended knowing that in November I will have to step into an election booth and won’t be able to find a candidate that I can, in good conscience, vote for,” he said. “I will either have to vote for the lesser of ‘two evils’ (if there is indeed such a thing) or vote for a write-in candidate who has no shot at winning the election.”
“My list of what offends me can go on and on, but what’s the use?” Wilkey said. “A non-believing world simply does not care what offends Christians.”
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