{"id":25339,"date":"2024-11-22T09:45:04","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T14:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=25339"},"modified":"2024-11-22T09:45:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T14:45:04","slug":"christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word","title":{"rendered":"Christian Volleyball Team Forfeits Playoff Game Due to Trans Player, Citing God\u2019s Word"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_25327\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25327\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/volleyball-team_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25327\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/volleyball-team_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-25327\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stone Ridge Christian from Merced, California, is making national news after its girls\u2019 volleyball team forfeited a playoff game against a team with a trans player. The team was scheduled to play a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) volleyball playoff game against San Francisco Waldorf School, which has a male student who identifies as a female playing on the team. \u00a0Campus Administrator Julie Fagundes released a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stratfordbeaconherald.com\/sports\/other-sports\/school-cites-gods-word-forfeiting-volleyball-game\">statement<\/a> about the team\u2019s decision, declaring, \u201cAs many of you know, our girls won on Wednesday and advanced to the state playoffs,\u201d Fagundes wrote in the letter. \u201cUnfortunately, we were just informed that our opponent, San Francisco Waldorf, has a male athlete playing for their team. At SRC, we believe God\u2019s Word is authoritative and infallible. It is Truth. And as Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutably created each person as male or female. We do not believe sex is changeable and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fagundes also noted the health and safety concerns that having a male player compete against females. There have been multiple incidents of biological females being injuring playing against biological males. In February, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/02\/20\/sports\/team-forfeits-against-kipp-academy-after-play-allegedly-involving-male-who-identifies-as-female\/\">Collegiate Charter School of Lowell<\/a> in Massachusetts\u00a0forfeited a basketball game in February after several of its players were allegedly injured during a game with a team featuring a trans player. The trans player is six feet tall with facial hair and video has surfaced of the player allegedly wrestling for the ball from a female player, who winds up on the ground, holding her back in pain. Three players were injured during the game, although Collegiate\u2019s athletic director was careful to state the school did not blame the trans player specifically for the injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Fagundes stated that ultimately, the school was committed to following biblical truth. \u201cStanding for Biblical truth means more than the outcome of a game. This is a heartbreaking end to our season, but I hope you will join me in congratulating these outstanding student-athletes. SRC is proud of them.\u201d The school\u2019s decision could impact its future games, that the CIF may be able to sanction the school for speaking out. Currently, the CIF has stated it has made no decisions about the school\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stone Ridge Christian from Merced, California, is making national news after its girls\u2019 volleyball team forfeited a playoff game against a team with a trans player. The team was scheduled to play a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) volleyball playoff game against San Francisco Waldorf School, which has a male student who identifies as a female&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":25327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,74,2488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-religious-freedom","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christian Volleyball Team Forfeits Playoff Game Due to Trans Player, Citing God\u2019s Word<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Volleyball Team Forfeits Playoff Game Due to Trans Player, Citing God\u2019s Word\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stone Ridge Christian from Merced, California, is making national news after its girls\u2019 volleyball team forfeited a playoff game against a team with a trans player. The team was scheduled to play a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) volleyball playoff game against San Francisco Waldorf School, which has a male student who identifies as a female&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-22T14:45:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/volleyball-team_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christian Volleyball Team Forfeits Playoff Game Due to Trans Player, Citing God\u2019s Word","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christian Volleyball Team Forfeits Playoff Game Due to Trans Player, Citing God\u2019s Word","og_description":"Stone Ridge Christian from Merced, California, is making national news after its girls\u2019 volleyball team forfeited a playoff game against a team with a trans player. The team was scheduled to play a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) volleyball playoff game against San Francisco Waldorf School, which has a male student who identifies as a female&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2024-11-22T14:45:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/volleyball-team_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word","name":"Christian Volleyball Team Forfeits Playoff Game Due to Trans Player, Citing God\u2019s Word","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/volleyball-team_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","datePublished":"2024-11-22T14:45:04+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-22T14:45:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/volleyball-team_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/volleyball-team_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Adobe Stock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/christian-volleyball-team-forfeits-playoff-game-due-to-trans-player-citing-gods-word#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christian Volleyball Team Forfeits Playoff Game Due to Trans Player, Citing God\u2019s Word"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e","name":"rdewing","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/61e\/61e772313b3ddff45ee0c1a275e8dfc5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/61e\/61e772313b3ddff45ee0c1a275e8dfc5x96.jpg","caption":"rdewing"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/rdewing"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25342,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25339\/revisions\/25342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}