Nike, Convictions, and Intentions

You may have seen Nike’s ad with Colin Kaepernick’s face that reads, “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.”  I’ve been purposely ambiguous in my view about the kneeling at games and how Kaepernick was treated afterward, because it’s such an explosive conversation, and I have too much offline to deal with to give the time needed to engage online with the issue.  

But the Nike ad summarizes what seems to me to be the real issue in all of this.  Perhaps you’ll agree, perhaps not.

What I like

What’s good about the statement: the emphasis on the need to live with conviction.  We should be a people who believe deeply in what we believe.  We should try to avoid living half-hearted and half-committed lives.  That’s highlighted by the Nike ad, and I most definitely agree.

What I don’t like

What’s bad about it: the clear implication that it doesn’t matter what cause you live for, as long as you’re authentic about it.  No one really believes this (or at least, they shouldn’t).  I saw one twitter user say yesterday that Hitler believed deeply in what he was doing, but no one today in their right mind would applaud his decidedly authentic efforts.  Some may respond that he knew that what he was doing was wrong.  But this doesn’t take into account the Biblical truth that when one rejects the truth about God, their hearts are darkened and hardened, and they become fools though they think they’re wise (see Romans 1:22).  Therefore their whole standard for what is right becomes skewed and twisted in their hearts.

Belief – and strong belief at that – isn’t enough.  What matters is what the belief is in. But the standard of our current cultural moment is that as long as one means what they do, it’s all good.  The problem, as I said earlier, is that no one really believes that.  If they did, they’d have no ground to call something someone else does wrong, because the person could mean what they're doing, whatever it is.

Pride

I have the conviction that it is the height of human pride to say that authenticity is all that matters.  While authenticity does matter, the thing itself– what you’re fighting for and standing for – matters, too.  And Western culture has all but rejected this concern for the irreducible minimum of the cause.  It isn’t one or the other – it is both/and.  One must stand for that which is right, and one must mean it while they stand.  I call this the height of human pride because the combination of rightness and authenticity requires subjection to the standard which only God provides, and I think we're doing everything we can to avoid this.

I’m a Christian because I believe that God alone is the One who can objectively define what is right for us.  Indeed a Christian is one who knows “that He (Christ, the God-man) is righteous” (1 John 2:29).  Only he can define what is right because, while we were all created upright, we’ve lost our uprightness through sin (Ecclesiastes. 7:29).  Therefore we now know that what is right matters, but we have within us injustices, blindspots, and a tendency to demonize those who disagree with us.  Therefore we're never fully upright even in our best moments.

Postmodernism and Truth 

But this ad displays what seems to me to be the most obvious maxim of postmodern culture: truth doesn’t matter, except for that one.  Therefore, Nike says, “Stand for something (anything, everything?), even if it costs you everything.”  

Further, no one asks the question, “What if what I’m standing for, in costing me everything, also costs others something?”  Then, is it still right? (And for the record, I’m not saying Kaepernick is doing this; just making the point that if you follow Nike's statement into its implications, this is unavoidable).  

Nike is only making a simple statement.  But it is a message which many many people will see, either in agreement or disagreement.  So what is being said should really be considered in depth, as I've tried to do here.

I get what Kaep was standing for (ironically, in his kneeling).  While I don’t agree fully with the means, I do understand and appreciate the ends.  He was standing against what he saw as the hypocrisy of a society saying equality matters but not actually practicing equal rights.  But may we not, in condemning hypocrisy, become hypocrites ourselves.  I believe that in Nike's statement, this is the inevitable outcome, because we'll merely believe deeply about things without considering if they're right or not.  Only Jesus is “true” and isn’t “swayed by appearances, but truly teaches the way of God” (Mark 12:14).  And only if we start with him can we stand for what is true, and do so with our whole hearts.