I'm new to this, but felt this was an appropriate time to enter the forum. Please excuse my lack of polish and wit so often, entertainingly, displayed here.

Let me start by saying, I have no problem with girls wrestling. They are as tough mentally and physically as any male athlete. My daughter was an elite gymnast since she was a little girl. She practiced 6 days a week, 4 hours a day. When she was a freshman at OE she could do more pull-ups and sit-ups than any of the boys in her class. (So could the other female gymnasts). If she had wrestled, I have no doubt she would have been incredible.

But that is not the point of this thread. Although asdf... named the tread "First round matches" He should have named it "What is the Catholic school going to do?"



asdf... You are not interested in the matchup. You do not think it might be close or possible upset. You are only interested in knowing whether or not the school or wrestler is going to disobey the Archdiocese policy regarding men wrestling women.

I know several commenters mentioned that the policy is not biblically derived. I respectfully disagree, but that can be open to debate.

I can only recall two mentions of wrestling in the Bible (depending on which version you read). First: Genesis 32:24: "And Jacob was left alone. And a man came and wrestled with him until the breaking of the day." And Ephesians 6:12: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

There is no mention, that I know of, of the rightness or wrongness of wrestling girls. However, there are some over aching philosophies regarding treating people and behavior. Ephesians is mainly about that general behavioral philosophy. I think that Biblically based philosophy is what lead the Archdiocese to derive this policy. (My opinion only). I do not believe the Archdiocese' policy was instigated because of the fear of inappropriate physical contact between the two sexes. I believe is is derived by how we should treat each other.

Ephesians 5:25-27 says: "Husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words, so that when he took the Church to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless." I interpret this from the literal, "husband and wife", to include how all men should behave and act toward all women in general. I believe men should be taught to honor, be considerate, revere, and respect women. This policy is just one small way to instill that to our young men. Not all of us agree with their policy. Is it sinful to wrestle a female? No, it is not. It is also not a sin if you don't: 1 open a door for a lady, 2 offer up your seat to a lady, 3 stand when a lady leaves or returns to a table, or 4 put the toilet seat down. But I still do those things and think it is good policy. But to say that the policy is not biblically based would be incorrect in my opinion. Some of you will retort that I am interpreting the Bible incorrectly. My response is that there are over 30,000 protestant denominations. Each interpreting the different renditions of the Bible on their own. Who is to say which of them is right?

The greatest summation of the Christian faith I have ever heard was relayed to me by a 90 year old Greek Orthodox lady named Christina Rigas, who had immigrated from the old country. She told me about the time a TV repair man, who was Muslim, came to her house. He saw the picture of The Madonna on her wall. He became angry pointed at the picture and made some disparaging comments. She told me she was very scared. But she said to the man, "You can believe what you want to believe and I can believe what I want to believe, but you have to like Jesus' philosophy". "What is that?" the man said. "Live in peace and love one another." she replied. "Live in peace and love one another." she repeated. The man smiled and fixed her TV for free. I think a lot more of us need to look at Miss Christina's philosophy of the Bible and not just read it as a rule book. That section of Ephesians is so beautiful when you just read it and soak it in. It loses its meaning if you try to break it down into a rule or a law.

So what is the SJA wrestling team going to do? I don't know. But I hope they follow the policy set before them, whether they agree with the philosophy behind it or not.

Sorry for the long initial rant. I will shorten it up in the future.