Ron Brown, football coach for the
University of Nebraska, is under attack for testifying against a
proposed measure in Omaha City which would outlaw discrimination
based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In his 3-minute testimony last month,
Brown told council members that each would be held to “great
accountability for the decision you are making.”
“The question I have for you all is,
like Pontius Pilate, what are you going to do with Jesus?” Brown
asked. “Ultimately, if you don't have a relationship with him, and
you don't really have a Bible-believing mentality, really, anything
goes. … At the end of the day it matters what God thinks most.”
Brown's testimony prompted Barbara
Baier, a member of the Lincoln Board of Education, to call for his
firing, the
AP reported. She noted the University of Nebraska's policy
banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in a letter
to university administrators.
“He says terrible things about
members of my community – citizens of this country, people who have
not committed any crimes,” Baier said. “He compares gays and
lesbians to people who have committed crimes, people who are desiring
to go and cause the destruction of the American family, and nothing
could be further from the truth.”
Brown says he was born again in 1979
and heads the Christian ministry FreedMen Nebraska. He evangelizes
on his radio show and during appearances on a cable-access channel in
Lincoln. He also writes a column for the Fellowship of Christian
Athletes' magazine and has authored several Christian-based self-help
books.
Brown has been an assistant football
coach at the University of Nebraska for 21 years. He was replaced in
2004 and rehired in 2008.
Gay rights groups called for Brown's
firing in 1999 after he condemned being gay on a Christian radio
show.
“To be fired for my faith would be a
greater honor than to be fired because we didn't win enough games,”
Brown told the AP. “I haven't lost any sleep over it. I realize
at some point, we live in a politically correct enough culture where
that very well could happen.”
“I have simply said that based on the
Bible, homosexuality, the lifestyle of homosexuality, is a sin,” he
added. “That has created a flame within itself. But I've decided
I'm not going to be afraid of people calling me a bigot or a
homophobic or narrow-minded out of a simple, gentle, compassionate
expression of the truth of God's word. I'm not going to be bought
off by that.”