Earlier this month, I posted about Columbus High School athlete Derrick Hayes. Hayes ran the anchor leg of his track team’s 4 x 100-meter relay and they had qualified for the state tournament… until he made a special gesture:

Long story short, Christians were quick to call this religious discrimination… until Hayes and his family admitted religion had nothing to do with it.

So that’s that, right? Derrick learned a lesson the hard way. The refs did what they were supposed to do. Let’s move on.

Enter Dr. Jerry Newcombe. Writing for Truth in Action Ministries a week after all of this transpired, Newcombe didn’t get the memo that this wasn’t religious discrimination:

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A few days ago, I posted about Columbus High School athlete Derrick Hayes, who ran the anchor leg for his track team’s 4 x 100-meter relay. His relay team’s time would have qualified them for the state tournament… but then something wacky happened:

As Hayes crossed the finish line in first, he “put his hand by his ear and just pointed to the heavens,” Hayes’ father said.

Officials ruled that the gesture violated a state scholastic rule against excessive celebration, which includes raising one’s hands. The team was disqualified, and barred from competing at the state championships.

A lot of Christian and mainstream sites argued that this could have been tantamount to religious discrimination. All he did was thank God! Why was he punished for that?! (Keep in mind that there was no video released to the public of this display or the aftermath.)

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