He can't be racist, he's religious!

For all the hockey fans out there, there is a big political farce going on right now about the captain of Canada's world championship hockey team, Shane Doan. Two years ago, Doan (of the Phoenix Coyotes) was playing a game in Montreal and a referee from Quebec alleges that Doan made anti-french remarks to him during the game, something to the tune of "F--king frenchman." Despite an investigation by the NHL which found the allegations to be unfounded, several politicians are complaining that Doan should not have been selected to the team due to the slur.

First off, it is simply a farce that our leaders would waste so much time drumming up debate over a non-issue. This is your tax dollars at work, folks.

Thankfully, Hockey Canada, most journalists, hockey players, and many, many Canadian citizens have all come down against the politicians in this case.

Now, the interesting thing to me is how Doans supporters have defended him. It's all about character: Doan would never say such a thing. Against standard hockey player type, Doan is well known for not swearing.

But for many of the supporters, character is equivalent to religious:

Olympic speed skating gold medallist Catriona LeMay Doan, who's married to the hockey player's cousin, said it's almost inconceivable a deeply religious Doan would utter such words.

"It's a joke -- it's something that supposedly happened two years ago and he was cleared ... he doesn't have a racist bone in his body.... When it first came across the news back then, it was a big farce -- everybody here laughed about it because Shane's a fairly religious guy." - Halkirk's (Doan's hometown) Mayor Ross Elsasser.

Hockey Canada chief Bob Nicholson said a cultural slur was certainly uttered during the 2005 game - but said it was never uttered by Doan.

He would not say which Coyote actually called a linesman a "F**king Frenchman," but suggested the player involved might not even have been from Canada.

As for Doan, the head of Hockey Canada says he has known the star forward since he was a teenager and described him as a gentle-hearted, devout Christian who doesn't even swear.

"You should get to know Shane Doan," Nicholson said.

"You can talk to all of his teammates that have played with him. He says 'fudge,' a lot if he gets upset. He's a Christian and a person that I am proud to know."

What's this stuff about religion preventing him from being a racist? Maybe in his case he interprets Christianity in a way that doesn't degrade different looking people, but that's never been a strong point of Christianity. The Hamitic Myth, anyone? In fairness, a quick and not very thorough estimate shows that only about 1 out of every 5 positive support comments refers to Doan's religion preventing him from being racist, while the rest refer to it preventing him from swearing. Ok, I buy that. He's Ned Flanders.