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Jaelene Hickle is a world-class professional soccer player with the North Carolina Courage.
She is also a deeply committed Christian.
When she declined to play for the US National Team because the US jersey celebrated "LGBTQ Pride," she did so because she felt she could not celebrate something that the Bible condemns---something that violates her beliefs and her conscience.
She was booed by the fans when her team played in Portland last week.
True Christian commitment has consequences.
Here's what happened.
Deadspin.com, a sports news site, filed a report titled, "Don We Now Our Gay Apparel," which said in part:
Jaelene Hinkle is a 25-year-old American soccer player who currently plays for the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage. Last June, the defender was named to the USWNT’s roster to play in a couple friendlies, but refused the call-up, citing “personal reasons.” In a recent interview, the devout Christian athlete explained that her decision was motivated by her desire not to wear the USWNT’s special LGBTQ Pride Month jersey.
In the interview in question, which Hinkle gave to the 700 Club (of course), Hinkle went over her athletic experiences and talked about how her religious faith has affected them. Eventually, she got to her choice back in June of 2017 to snub the USWNT.
The Oregonian newspaper says, "Jaelene Hinkle shocked the women's soccer community when she made the decision to decline a call-up from the US Women's National Team last June.
The Oregonian notes that "Her decision came shortly after US Soccer announced that the squad would be wearing jerseys in honor of LGBTQ Pride Month during their June friendlies [games]. There was speculation at the time that Hinkle, who is a devout and outspoken Christian, was withdrawing from the team because she didn't want to wear a pride jersey."
While it was apparently known last June by those close to her why she made the decision, it was only after she shared her decision recently on the 700 Club that she began to experience the wrath of the homosexual community.
Deadspin says, "The 700 Club released the interview just yesterday, and it didn't take long for news of Hinkle's admission to spread. Last night the Courage played an away game against the Portland Thorns, and Portland's fans made sure to voice their displeasure with Hinkle."
The Oregonian reports that Hinkle was booed by the Portland crowd "when her name was announced. One fan in attendance brought a banner that made mention of the incident."
Her coach said it was tough on her--"It's not an easy thing for her. I give her a lot of credit to be perfectly honest with you. Whatever her beliefs are, whatever she believes in, that's her."
Here's why it happened.
This is the 5-minute interview on the 700 Club ( Link 3 Youtube.)
“I just felt so convicted in my spirit that it wasn't my job to wear this jersey,” the player, Jaelene Hinkle, said in a new interview with the 700 Club. “I gave myself three days to just seek and pray and determine what [God] was asking me to do in this situation.”
Hinkle told the 700 Club that she wrestled with her Christian faith – to which she’d first committed at age 12 – and trying to fit in throughout her soccer career and college. But when she got a blood clot during her junior year at Texas Tech, she faced the possibility of never being able to play soccer again.
“Everything just came crashing down,” she said, and she promised God that if she’d be allowed to play soccer again, it would be for Him.
The blood clot subsided, and the doctor told her, “you have gotten a miracle,” she recalled. After that, “I wanted to know anything and everything about the Lord.”
Hinkle said it was “very disappointing” to give up something she’d dreamt about her entire life, but maybe the whole purpose of her stint with the national team was to be a witness to other players. The “peace” that came from following her conscience “trumped the disappointment."
"I knew in my spirit I was doing the right thing,” she said. “I knew I was being obedient. Just because you’re obedient doesn’t make it easy.”
“If I never get a national team call-up again...that just is part of His plan and that’s okay,” said Hinkle. “And maybe this was why [I was] meant to play soccer. Just to show other believers to be obedient."
Consider this.
Kevin Williamson, writing for the Weekly Standard says, “There’s no logical reason that women’s sports should be an especially uncomfortable place for someone with traditionalist views about homosexuality. But the kulturkampf brigades will have only conformity, abject and absolute. That is part of the doctrine of ‘inclusion,’ which, perversely enough, exists for the purpose of excluding certain people with unpopular political or religious opinions.”
“Hinkle chose not to play. Fair enough,” he wrote. “To her credit, she has not engaged in Colin Kaepernick-level grandstanding or did the usual thing and filed a lawsuit. She only declined to participate."
“Yet that’s an unforgivable crime for our so-called liberals,” Williamson explained. “That’s what’s really behind the demand for public funding of abortion, contraception, and the like: The strategy is to ensure that everybody is implicated, corporately."
Paul wrote this: "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
When Christians really believe like Christians, they act like Christians---even when the public scorns them.
Be Faithful. Be Vigilant. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.