At least one young man walks his talk

[Hawkmoon]

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Rather-than-wrestle-a-girl-in-the-state-13655399.php

High school wrestler gave up his chance of winning the state championship because he would have had to wrestle against a girl ... and that went against his religious beliefs. I say good for him.

As for the mother of one of the girls expressing her daughter's disappointment to Johnston's mother ... that's entirely inappropriate, IMHO.

[dogmush]

I was really expecting that to be a story about Trans wrestlers, but it's normal girls wrestling. I did not know that was a thing.


The whole thing read kinda like nothingburger to me: Rules of the sport let girls wrestle with boys. Boy does not like it, and doesn't wrestle girls over the course of two seasons. OK. Seems like all three athletes were pretty mature about the whole thing, actually.

[Kingcreek]

When I was younger all I wanted to do was wrestle girls. The problem was always finding girls that wanted to wrestle with me.

[grampster]

Sticking by ones values seems to be considered something odd in this nation of cultural equivalence, moral relativism, and situational ethics.

[Fly320s]

What is the religious objection? 

[zahc]

I used to work with a Jewish guy who wouldn't touch women other than his wife at all. I specifically remember him mentioning this being awkward in his aikido classes. I understand he also didn't touch his wife for about one week per month.

[Hawkmoon]

I was really expecting that to be a story about Trans wrestlers, but it's normal girls wrestling. I did not know that was a thing.

That's what I expected, too. To the extent that I had to stop midway through the article and reboot because it wasn't going in the direction I had expected.

[WLJ]

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Rather-than-wrestle-a-girl-in-the-state-13655399.php

High school wrestler gave up his chance of winning the state championship because he would have had to wrestle against a girl ... and that went against his religious beliefs. I say good for him.

As for the mother of one of the girls expressing her daughter's disappointment to Johnston's mother ... that's entirely inappropriate, IMHO.

If he was Muslim I doubt this would have even have made it to the news but the article doesn't say.

[Ron]

He didn’t sound comfortable desensitizing himself to violence against women.

[MechAg94]

Sounds like it isn't the first time either.  Just this time he had a state championship in his sights and made the same decision.

[Perd Hapley]

What is the religious objection?  

One objection he stated was that he didn't want to be "physically aggressive" with a girl. I'm assuming his religion is Christian. I can't think of any Christian rule that specifically says you can't be aggressive in sports with girls, but he also said he had personal reasons not to do it.

As a Christian, I would see two problems with co-ed wrestling. First would be the close, physical contact between people (especially teenagers) of the opposite sex, that aren't married to each other. As a Christian, I would be teaching any teen boy I might someday have to keep his hands off girls, even if it's the spirit of friendly competition. Wait 'til you're married. The whole, if you like, put a ring on it thing. Second would be the current move toward de-emphasizing or denying differences between the sexes. The Bible isn't misogynistic, but it does treat the sexes as having different qualities, and different roles. Some Christians think it's our responsibility to remind the current culture that those differences are real. So there could be a Biblical reason to say no to integrated athletics.

[Pb]

I know a man who used to teach high school wrestling.  His policy was that none of the wrestlers were allowed to wrestle a girl.  They had to forfeit.