There is no mention, that I know of, of the rightness or wrongness of wrestling girls.
At the end of the day it comes down to this... Biblical or Extra-Biblical. The decision to force a male wrestler to forfeit to a female wrestler is an extra-biblical position.
But to say that the policy is not biblically based would be incorrect in my opinion.
The only truth written to mankind, the Bible, has no prohibition to compete in a sporting event against the opposite gender.
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?
If this wrestler were to compete for Kapaun Mt. Carmel, Maur Hill or many other Catholic schools across America, he would be allowed to compete freely this weekend. The 195 Archdiocese's are not united on this extra-biblical position.
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.
Live in peace and love one another? How does that apply when a male wrestles a male? Are they also violating this exampled principle?
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.
If a wrestler chooses on their own to not wrestle girls based on their personal conviction, I am all for them and completely respect their decision. What I am not for is the extra-biblical edict imposed on Catholic student-athletes in certain geographic areas.
