I usually like reading Rick Reilly of ESPN, but I don’t think he is thinking as clearly as he believes in his column this past week. If you haven’t heard, fourteen-year-old wrestler Cassy Herkelman, became the first girl in the state of Iowa to win a match in its state tournament. The problem, however, is that she won after her opponent, Joel Northrup, decided to default rather than wrestle her in the first round.

Apparently Northrup’s decision was largely based on Christian convictions. He said, “As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner.” Reilly apparently believes the 16 year-old Northrup needs to be taken to task for this. Among other things, he writes,

Does any wrong-headed decision suddenly become right when defended with religious conviction? In this age, don’t we know better? If my God told me to poke the elderly with sharp sticks, would that make it morally acceptable to others?

And where does it say in the Bible not to wrestle against girls? Or compete against them? What religion forbids the two-point reversal?

I could say a lot about these few paragraphs alone, but I want to point out two primary reasons why I dislike Reilly’s column.

1) Reilly wrote this column with a great deal of arrogance.

That might sound harsh, and I certainly want to be able to make this point humbly, but if you read his column, isn’t the pride obvious? After all, Reilly writes as if his insight into this matter were obvious and timeless. He acts not as someone who has really wrestled (no pun intended) with the issue of male and female and their places in sport, but as someone who believes that this issue is so obvious that everyone should easily subscribe to his beliefs. According to Reilly, his standard and his convictions are so clear that everyone should listen up and submit to him. That shined through his every word.

And though it is my belief that he is downright wrong about this matter, it is his arrogance that bothered me more than anything else. For an issue such as this is far from an easy one to think through, and I have no doubt that well-meaning people (and even Christians) can come to differing conclusions. To write as if the entire matter were simple and obvious points not only to a lack of wisdom, but more importantly, to a lack of humility. Though come to think of it, I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise as the latter is usually seen as a prerequisite for the former.

2) It is my belief that rather than being criticized, young Joel Northrup should be encouraged for doing exactly what a young man should have done (and what other young men should have done).

I want to disagree with Reilly humbly, but I still want to strongly disagree (and the two can and should go hand-in-hand). Contrary to Reilly’s thinking, I believe Northrup’s actions, rather than dishonoring her, honored her as a young woman created in the image of God. At the very least, we know this is what his motivation was. For his father, Jamie, a minister in an independent Pentecostal faith called Believers in Grace Fellowship, is quoted as saying,

“We believe in the elevation and respect of woman, and we don’t think that wrestling a woman is the right thing to do. Body slamming and takedowns — full contact sport is not how to do that.”

Now, I know full well people will disagree with me (and him) on this matter, but you cannot deny the motivation of the Northrup’s. You can only disagree with their general worldview and Biblical understanding of manhood and womanhood, and how we best honor one another. And that disagreement points to the real reason why this story is so prominent right now (or at least when I started this post!). A story such as this makes us ask fundamental questions about manhood and womanhood. And more often than not (and most importantly), how God created us in the first place.

As I already said, I share the same conviction as the Northrup’s. I assume this is because I share the same general, and I believe, biblical, understanding of manhood and womanhood. Contrary to Reilly’s absurd comments, I don’t believe Northrup made the right decision before God because the Bible is clear about wrestling rules, but because the Bible is clear about the differences between male and female, and that an understanding of those differences will lead you to conclude that boy vs. girl wrestling is not a good idea.

I could say more about this. And maybe I will at some point in the future. But I’ll end by saying this: no matter what you conclude about this situation, be sure to recognize that your conclusion flows from your basic understanding of male and female. And if you are a Christian, the nature of the God who created male and female (for biblically, it is very obvious that the nature of God is where the discussion really starts). So if you want to talk to someone about this issue, start there. Deal with the real issue. And then humbly dialogue and disagree with one another until you either both agree or until it is tough to move on to something else. And though this post doesn’t nearly cover all I could say, it is certainly that time for me.