Show of hands – are you as fed up as I am with the recycled media story about NFL players “taking the knee” to protest how bad (racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Canadian, fascist) America is?

A few thoughts from a non-American who deeply loves this country. (To borrow from the 80s band Men At Work, I come from a land up over.)

First, I’m aware that the phrase “take a knee” is something a coach might say to the team for a pep talk. But this new iteration, “Take the knee” (with defiant definite article) means something different. It’s a hashtag-inspired statement, a form of virtue signaling via body language.

Forget that these millionaires in tight uniforms succeeded primarily (although, obviously, not solely) because they live in America, and that 99% of cops would willing protect and serve them, too. Forget that President Trump has spent inordinate amounts of time and energy weighing in and dousing the flames with jet fuel on Twitter. Forget the spun-off talking head cable TV debates. What started with the antics of the unemployed Colin Kaepernick has ended by…not quite ending.

The thing to focus on? How meaningless this story is.

So some liberal football players want to virtue signal, guilt-drenched fellow travelers jump on the bandwagon du jour, and ESPN gives the spectacle 24/7 adulation. This is news?

So little is at stake, compared to other things that happened during the Take the Knee frenzy. While the sports media noise machine went into hype mode over some footballers posing to show alleged heroism (remember, ESPN gave their 2015 Arthur Ashe Courage Award to…Caitlyn Jenner), Puerto Rico was still getting violently assaulted by Hurricane Maria, Christians in Iraq were being persecuted by Islamic terrorists, the martyr Father Stanley Rother was beatified in Oklahoma (the first US-born male now closer to sainthood), and thousands of brave men and women in law enforcement across the country were protecting the innocent and apprehending the guilty.

It’s depressing to behold, but once a sidebar story like this is fruitful and multiplies — and attains hash tag status — the media piles on and squeezes every last drop of juice from the long dry lemon.

This knee-taking kerfuffle is the latest manifestation of the politicization off all things. It’s conflict for conflict’s sake. Want to talk about courage? How many of the knee-takers would protest a rainbow flag at the start of a game or the singing of “Y.M.C.A.”?

No. Sitting out (kneeling out?) the collective musical symbol of the United States is as gutsy as they get. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought real men knelt when they pray and stood while they sang. It’s obvious why serial kneeler Tim Tebow is lampooned while Colin Kaepernick is lauded.

No matter. Certain laws of economics are already kicking in with predicable consequences: most NFL fans don’t appreciate the sliming of their beloved game by political posturing whether by players or owners, and, while they didn’t need the Commander-In-Tweet to hector them, have already begun to vote with their feet and viewers with their remotes.

How many football fans are thrilled to see ESPN become CNN and lecture to them over how to think?

About as many moviegoers are thrilled to be lectured by celebrities during the Hollywood Award season.

“Taking the knee” indeed cuts both ways.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the need for strong friendships and supportive communities to sustain good mental health. Men in particular are in dire need today for a camaraderie that goes deeper than sports scores and fishing gear. (We men excel at looking at and talking about external stuff together but do not excel in sharing our hearts aloud.)

From the eminently quotable Peter Kreeft: “If you love, you will suffer. The only way to protect yourself against suffering is to protect yourself against love – and that is the greatest suffering of all, loneliness.”

On October 1 at 7PM, by the way, Dr. Kreeft will be my guest on The Patrick Coffin Show, in the first live iteration of the podcast, at St. John’s church in Costa Mesa (click here to register if you live in Orange County). We’re going to be talking about the need to really listen to and understand our separated brethren as we engage in the culture war against the “isms” new and old, not just fundamentalism, but indifferentism, atheism, and relativism.

Some people are uncomfortable with the concept of a culture war. I say, get over it. The primal culture war, if you will, is the spiritual battle that rages around us between angels and demons for our souls, otherwise known as Catholic teaching (See CCC 391 and following).

In any war, the army itself provides intense camaraderie. Shakespeare’s “band of brothers” speech from the magnificent Henry V bespeaks the power of this level of fellow-feeling and bravery.

But where is this to be found today? We barely acknowledge we’re in a war at all, despite the fact that our freshman-age kids come home by Thanksgiving as atheists, our teens are depressed at alarmingly high rates, and so many of our marriages are secretly hurting. Robert Putnam has describes this sense of isolation and disconnection from the goods of the community in his book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

The parish setting and the ethnic neighborhood that framed it used to be a powerful matrix of social support. Sniff at the notion of “Catholic ghetto” all you want, but as a network of interdependent supports buttressed by a shared sacramental life, it worked exceedingly well. Almost gone today are the sodalities, the parish sewing bees (which also served as prayer networks), the altar and Rosary societies—all of which formed a kind of loose extended family beyond the four walls of the domestic church.

Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council, in an era of low information Catholicism with greatly eclipsed Mass attendance, if you want authentic Catholic camaraderie you have to search for it. It’s rare, so sometimes you have to pray to St. Anthony to find it.

But the finding that comes from the seeking is worth it. Whether it’s Bible study, men’s fellowship groups, the Cursillo movement, a regular monastic retreat, Opus Dei, or your homegrown group of regulars who love Jesus Christ – anyone who takes discipleship serious must intentionally seek these extra sources of support.

The days of “Sunday Mass only” Catholicism are behind us. We have to wake up to the reality. And sometimes we need help a little help from our friends to leave the womb-like security of bed and to tackle the perils of the day.

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