Brittney Griner’s story continues to transcend women’s basketball. It is a morality play for our times.
The good news is that on Sunday, Feb. 18, Baylor University retired Griner’s No. 42 jersey. She was present for the ceremony in Waco, the first time she has attended a Bears home game since her senior season 11 years ago.
The two-time AP National Player of the Year and career blocks leader has a complex relationship with her alma mater, to put it nicely.
Having written two previous articles supporting Griner during her Russian imprisonment, I am not an unbiased observer of Baylor retiring Griner’s No. 42 at the recent Texas Tech – Baylor women’s basketball game. I support LGBTQ rights, my most recent church is a welcoming and affirming Baptist church, and we were among those demanding Griner’s release from a Russian prison.
Brtittney Griner enters Foster Pavilion to cheers (Photo: Baylor University)
Return to Waco
Two years ago, during her unjust imprisonment in Russia on questionable and likely trumped-up charges, Baylor officials were conspicuously silent about her plight. That’s likely because the charges included possession of a small amount of an illegal but commonly used drug — and because Griner is a lesbian who is married to another woman. The big Baptist school on the Brazos hasn’t come to terms with its LGBTQ community.
That background made it all the more remarkable to see Griner back at Baylor, wearing a letterman jacket as she walked back on the court to loud cheers from the crowd. And to see her holding her hands over her mouth as a banner featuring her number was revealed, then tapping her chest and sending a kiss to the crowd as fans clapped for her.
Fans in attendance were all given yellow shirts with the number 42 and a silhouette of Griner emblazoned on the front. Within the walls of Foster Pavilion that Sunday night, no type of bitterness appeared to be present.
Griner generated rousing, appreciative cheers before, during and after the game. Thousands of fans proudly wore their No. 42 shirts. They serenaded her with loud and proud applause when the banner with her number was unveiled.
Another 42
Dan Commerford, property custodian of the Brooklyn Baseball Club, gives Jackie Robinson a numbered jersey with the iconic ’42,’ Baltimore, Maryland, October 5, 1947. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
All those yellow shirts with No. 42 emblazoned remind me of another historic No. 42. Every year on April 15 — Jackie Robinson Day — every Major League Baseball team honors the first player to break the sport’s color barrier after decades of segregation. As part of the celebration, all uniformed personnel in MLB — players, coaches and umpires —wear No. 42 for one game.
Griner’s No. 42 now will stand as a symbol of LGBTQ rights.
After leaving Baylor, Griner publicly announced she was gay. She married Cherelle Watson in June 2019. The pair met while both were students at Baylor. Griner encountered criticism from the hyper-patriotic clan when she made a statement about the National Anthem that the keepers of what passes for patriotism found offensive. Then she was detained in Russia in February 2022 and sentenced to nine years in prison under drug smuggling charges after Russian authorities found cannabis oil in her luggage.
Many evangelical Christians — including Baptists in Texas — drew a straight line from her statement about the National Anthem to declaring she should be allowed to rot in a Russian prison. And besides, they whispered, she’s gay.
Thus, there is every reason to applaud this latest action of Baylor University. A special commendation goes to the current Baylor women’s basketball head coach, Nicki Collen.
“A special commendation goes to the current Baylor women’s basketball head coach, Nicki Collen.”
“I have been saying this since I arrived at Baylor, that she deserves to have her jersey retired, and I wanted to make sure that happened when the timing was right,” Collen said in a statement. “With the opening of Foster Pavilion and the WNBA offseason fitting into our season, this seemed like the right time to honor Brittney and welcome her back home.”
Long overdue, deeply moving, and greatly appreciated were my first thoughts as I watched highlights of the event.
The dark shadow of anti-gay Baptists
There’s a dark shadow hovering over the ceremony for Griner, however. The eyes of those Baptists opposed to LGBTQ rights saw a different sight from me. Since they subscribe to the “slippery slope,” they saw Griner’s ceremony as one more step down the road to hell. Outside the arena, away from the glare of the media, there were ominous sounds like teeth grinding.
Religious people, when convinced with certainty of “rightness,” can be a nasty bunch. The Bible mentions a religious mob’s hatred for the preaching of Stephen. “When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.” I have no doubt some evangelical teeth “are set on edge” over gay rights.
When politics and religion intersect sports, sad emotions show up to clash with the emotions of joy. The fear of a “lost” America.
The anti-Baylor attitude is 100 years old
Baylor has been used for target practice by Texas demagogues for more than a century. Fundamentalist anger, insecurity and jealousy have erupted from J. Frank Norris to W.A. Criswell to Robert Jeffress. There’s an unbroken Texas preacher “successionism” of bad-mouthing Baylor.
J. Frank Norris
Norris, in 1922, charged a Baylor professor was teaching evolution. History professor Barry Hankins notes, “Norris also went after Baylor University for harboring an Al Smith club on the campus, saying, ‘They Have Defiled the Oldest and Greatest Baptist University.’” Norris, one of the godfathers of American fundamentalism, was pastor at First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas.
As pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Criswell renewed an attack on Baylor by accusing the university of harboring “infidels” in the Religion Department. His later successor, Robert Jeffress, picked up the antipathy toward Baylor and has derided the school on multiple occasions — even though he is a graduate of the institution.
Jeffress has no love for Baylor. He claims there are professors at Baylor who try to convince young Christians to question their faith in God: “Our church has sent students down there for years who have their faith completely torn apart by infidels in the Religion Department.”
This Jeffress tirade against Baylor was prompted by the university regents cracking open the door to the possibility of allowing a narrowly defined group of LGBTQ students to have a campus organization.
What makes Jeffress so hard to take is his “dadgum” certainty that he is “Christian” and Baylor is “anti-Christian.” Jeffress claims, “What they teach, and the underlying philosophy, is anti-Christian. And I don’t think any true Christian parent who wants their kids to have a Christian education would allow their child anywhere near Baylor University.”
Then he zeroed in on his outrage: “Like any good magician, the Baylor administration has mastered the art of distraction and deception. … What this really is, is a fraternity for LGBTQ students. The fact is they thought a support group might give the impression that they were trying to help these students. If they were really trying to lead these students out of homosexuality and out of gender confusion, that would be a good thing. But what they’re really going to do is to affirm their right to engage in that kind of ungodly behavior.”
Coach Nicki Collen with Brittney Griner (Photo: Baylor University)
The battle is not over
The celebration for Griner is a three-point basket at the close of the half. It is not the game winner or the game changer. The celebration in Waco does look more like what America is becoming. Yet the dark cloud of anti-gay forces — as thick as the locusts in a biblical plague — never will stop, quit or surrender. More challenges, more court cases, more bigotry are still to come.
“The celebration for Griner is a three-point basket at the close of the half. It is not the game winner or the game changer.”
Meanwhile, back in Evangelical Land, efforts continue to undo all the progress made. Tennessee has passed a bill making it more difficult to “solemnize” a marriage. The Tennessee legislation is a direct challenge to the Supreme Court approval of gay marriage. Other states will follow suit. Evangelicals will keep pushing to reverse gains in human rights. Justice Samuel Alito last week said he was right to fear opponents of same-sex marriage would be treated as bigots. Alito’s statement reflects a continuing desire within elements of the conservative legal community to reopen the issue of same-sex marriage.
Last week, an Oklahoma state senator referred to LGBTQ people as “filth” when asked at a public forum about the death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary high school student in the Tulsa area. Sen. Tom Woods said that his heart went out to Benedict’s family, but that regarding LGBTQ identity generally, “We are a religious state. We are going to fight to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma, because we’re a Christian state.”
Progress but …
Brittney Griner acknowledges the crowd at Baylor’s Foster Pavilion. (Photo: Baylor University)
Baylor’s awkward position on sexuality didn’t change during the raising of No. 42 as if a sort of “transubstantiation” occurred. Baylor goes back to being Baylor — conflicted and trying to keep an impossible peace among warring Baptists. The “gay rights” issue remains.
Perhaps the anti-gay crowd of Texas preachers are giving Baylor a pass on this event. They will write it off as a basketball event. A gay couple didn’t get married in the seminary chapel. A gay fraternity wasn’t formed. A gay pride parade didn’t march through the campus. Maybe they will let this slide. I fear, of course, such a sentiment is delusional. Critics will reappear down the road.
To be fair, there were surely some evangelicals in the arena cheering for Brittney Griner, but they are not working to change the Baptist ideology about gays. They cheered for a great basketball player, not for the person who is the player.
That will be the day.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 10 books, including his latest, Good and Evil in the Garden of Democracy.
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