Dear A$$hole: Chris Broussard Edition

Dear Chris Broussard: I try very hard not to hate. To be sure, I have strong opinions, and there are plenty of things that bother, irk, annoy, exasperate, aggravate, and irritate me. But hate is something I try to reserve for things that truly deserve it. Things like bigotry. And hypocrisy. Well, Chris Broussard, come on down - in one fell swoop, you've managed to demonstrate both.

Personally, I never found your NBA analysis on ESPN to be particularly insightful. The only thing I ever learned from him is how to misspell the word M-E-M-P-H-I-S.

Your wasted Oberlin education notwithstanding, my issues with you have to do with your public comments about Jason Collins' recent announcement that he is gay. Mr. Broussard, you refer to to yourself as a Christian, and called homosexuality an "open rebellion to God", telling your audience that despite the fact that Collins referring to himself as a Christian, you do not consider him to be one. You went on to say:

"Personally, I don’t believe that you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle or an openly ... like premarital sex between heterosexuals. If you’re openly living that type of lifestyle, then the Bible says 'you know them by their fruits.' It says that, you know, that’s a sin....and if you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality -- adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals -- whatever it may be, I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ."

Fair enough. Yet, despite your strong faith, and a daily public forum in which you can share your outrage, the first time you chose to speak out against an individual who committed these sins happened to coincide with the first time an NBA player announced his homosexuality. And to be sure, you have had many opportunities.

• There was deafening silence when the very married Charles Barkley was arrested for DUI, while admittedly on the prowl for a prostitute. I didn't hear you condemn Sir Charles.
• To call you a LeBron James sycophant would not do it justice. Your ESPN colleague Skip Bayless went so far as to say that by sucking up to LeBron James, you sold your "journalistic soul". Interestingly, your faith didn't prevent this "friendship" or cause you to speak out publicly against James - a man with two children out of wedlock. Or did I miss that?
• I didn't hear any outcry from you when J.R. Smith tweeted photos of a scantily clad woman in his hotel room. Perhaps you thought she was there for bible study, as opposed to pre-marital sex.
• Yesterday you were conspicuously quiet when it was announced that Jason Kidd - a man who has pleaded guilty to domestic assault, and just last year wrapped his car around a telephone pole - was given the NBA's Sportsmanship Award. No moral outrage, Mr. Broussard?

I am far from a biblical scholar, but a little research tells me that you have read and re-read the passage of the bible (Leviticus) that says "Man shall not lie with another man as he does with a woman". Well OK then. But if you chooses to explain away your intolerance and bigotry as the result of the bible's teachings, I suggest you finish reading Leviticus, because you seem not to have reached the part about  "If a man cheats on his wife, or vise versa, both the man and the woman must die".

Hey Chris - let the stoning begin. Until then, you're just another bigot and hypocrite.