Tea

ByHal Hammons

Alex Morgan of the United States Women’s National Team is being credited/accused of casting “subtle shade” on the English side after the American’s victory in the Women’s World Cup semifinals.  Pretending to sip tea, it seems, qualifies as mockery.

        For me, I say bully for Alex.  Winners are entitled to celebrate.  And if English people take issue with being cast as tea-sippers, they should sip less tea.  If the Brits celebrated a goal by pretending to chug-a-lug a quart of iced tea, no Americans would think it was offensive.  Weird, maybe, but not offensive.

Maybe I’m missing something here.  Maybe, in this highly charged environment of ours, Ms. Morgan is being accused of cultural assimilation.  She should not aspire to tea-sipping until she can properly distinguish a scone from a crumpet, or refuse to pronounce her Rs or ignore the results of a war fought 250 years ago.

Is that shade subtle enough?

Anyway, it should be impossible to mock someone for doing something for which they are proud.  That’s Peter’s point in 1 Peter 4:16.  So your neighbors in the world are making fun of you for avoiding sin and embracing Jesus Christ?  So what?  That’s just more reason for us to appreciate the choice we made. 

And if we are upset at being called Christian, or pure, or sober, or restrained, that says far more about us than it says about our neighbors.

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