Sports and superstars--Charles Colson

Charles Colson had an excellent article today in regard to the sports' drug enhancement scandal. It is printed below for your reading!


Monsters of Our Own MakingUndercutting Human Potential
January 9, 2008
Last month Major League Baseball was rocked by the release of the Mitchell report, which exposed the rampant use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs among players. More than 90 players, including one of my heroes, Roger Clemens, were named in the report.
All those home runs fans celebrated, all those heroes kids emulated: History is now tainted. "I don't think there's any question," said baseball historian Bruce Markusen, "that some of the milestones we've come to respect have been cheapened." I wonder if fewer fans will show up when spring training starts in a couple months.
But do fans really have the right to indulge in righteous indignation over steroid-use in baseball—and in other sports, for that matter?
While "baseball purists" raged over Barry Bonds's pursuit of the home-run record last summer, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson called Bonds "simply a man of his age." Not justifying steroid use, Robinson challenged the purists to look in the mirror.
"We, the paying customers," he writes, "want to see supermen and superwomen performing super feats, and we're willing to pay these gladiators a fortune. Why should they disappoint us?" I would add, how could they afford to?
Indeed, as Leon Kass and Eric Cohen wrote in the Washington Post a few years ago, "we are actually complicit in the growing dependencies of our gigantic heroes. We . . . enjoy the spectacle of greater power and speed." Thus, athletes "become better by no longer fully being [themselves] . . . The performed deed may be superior," Kass and Cohen continue, "but it is less a deed of the particular doer, more the work of his chemist."
Sadly, this trickles down to youth sports as well. The Positive Coaching Alliance released its Bottom 10 List of 2007's worst moments in sports. The number-two incident after the Mitchell report? An Orlando father was "found guilty of supplying steroids and human growth hormone to his 14-year-old son [in order] to improve his speed-skating skills." This is tragic.
As our capacity to reengineer the human body grows, what kind of society will we become? "We might lose sight of the difference between real and false excellence, and eventually not care," Kass and Cohen wrote. "Worst of all, we would be in danger of turning our would-be heroes into slaves, who exist only to entertain us and whose freedom to pursue human excellence has been shackled by the need to perform—and conform—for our amusement and applause."
There is room in the world for true sports heroes. And there are plenty of steroid-free athletes whose skill and commitment to excellence are worthy of our admiration.
I can't help but think of the great Olympian Eric Liddell, portrayed in one of my all-time favorite movies, Chariots of Fire. Refusing to compete in the Olympic 100-meter event because it was scheduled on a Sunday, he trained for the 400-meter race, which required completely different skills. And he not only won, he set a new world record. I never can forget his words in that movie:
"I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure."
And that's a pleasure we can all feel when we use the abilities God has given us—when we reflect His image, not the image of our own making or a chemist's.

Epiphany

A church calendar event that goes back to the 2nd or 3rd century is Epiphany. What is it? Well it takes places on January 6 and Britannica tells us this about it: Today: Epiphany Celebrated annually this day, Epiphany is a major feast that commemorates, for Western Christians, the coming of the Magi and, for Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jesus' birth, baptism by John, and first miracle.

The Obscenity of Campaign Spending

We are on the edge of the caucuses in Iowa tonight (January 2, 2008). There is a lot of hubbub over how the vote will go in Iowa. Iowa is seen as a weathervane as to where the candidates will go. My concern is about the obscene use of money in this presidential campaign. How can the candidates justify the money they are spending on themselves? For example, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have $100,000,000 to spend on their campaigns. That represents a great deal of media blitz and other political advertising. $100,000,000. If all the candidates who are pursuing the presidency have similar amounts, we are talking about spending one-half billion dollars.

Several things to consider:

First, how do the candidates justify the waste of this much money? They do not even offer the slightest apology for it. Their goal is to be elected and they will do it regardless of the cost.

Second, this money comes from somewhere or someone(s). How many favors supporters will call in after the election is over? How much pressure can the supporters put on the presidency especially if the person is seeking re-election?

Third, there are thousands of hungry and homeless people in the USA who could benefit from this waste of money. How do you say to the hungry man, "Sorry, Charlie, but I need this money to get elected President? You just go ahead and starve to death. Before you die be sure you vote for me." New schools could be built, research funded for cancer and AIDS. Instead the money will go up in smoke and regardless of how much is spent, only one of these people will be president. That's the way our system works. It means that the other five wasted their time and money in the process.

Therefore, when these candidates talk about their concern for the poor, the unemployed, the uninsured, they are playing the role of the classic hypocrite.

The Shame of American World Politics

The Shame of American Politics

In the news today, another article appeared about the turmoil in Kenya. I lived next door to the slum called Kibera where much of the rioting is taking place. While we were in Kenya from 1985-88 we saw a relatively peaceful country, minding its own business and the most prosperous of the central African countries as well as the most stable. It had come out of colonialism under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta. When Kenyatta retired, he determined that the next leader should not belong to any of the major tribes, but rather from a minor tribe—the Kalenjin. Moi would prove to be an effective ruler. However, he also followed the pattern of many of the African leaders; he was corrupt and amassed a personal fortune of nearly $100,000,000.

When we asked Kenyans what they thought of such corruption because they knew all about it, they answered in an unusual fashion. They did not resent Moi having all that money. What they would like is a piece of the pie as well. Moi's behavior was classic for African tribal leadership. The Kenyans understood the system and were glad to live with it. The country was stable. Kenya enjoyed a large contingency of tourists and people were satisfied with life as it was.

So what happened? The U. S. government put pressure on Kenya to hold multi-party elections. If Kenya refused to hold multi-party elections then the U. S. government would reduce aid payments, which were important to the economy. However, the Kenyans were not ready for this form of democracy. When tribal conflict took place, the loser usually died. As the country prepared for multi-party elections civil war broke out. Thousands were killed in the conflict because this was the way the Kenyans saw competing parties in the country. The civil war led to reduced tourism and more unemployment and social problems. The mistake the U. S. government made was the lack of knowledge of how Kenyan society and politics operated.

Our government is notorious for being unable to understand the nations with which it deals. An illustration is our ill-fated intervention into Somalia. The big mistake made was allowing the warlords to live. As long as the warlords were alive, they would continue to stir up strife. It sounds horrid to go in and deliberately kill rulers, but in this case, it was necessary. Instead, the warlords were allowed to live and the result was a disastrous and humiliating defeat on the troops of the United States. Failure to understand the mind of the Somalians brought about disaster.

The present situation in Iraq is another illustration of our consistent failure to understand other cultures. Where were the Middle East scholars when the plans were being made to upset Saddam Hussein? Anyone who understood the Muslim world would be able to tell you that when you removed one party from power that had been supported by the previous government, then the oppressed group, usually the majority, would take its revenge. We have Iraqis killing Iraqis for religious reasons. The religious reasons are deep-seated and reach back for centuries. Did we think that the glamour of American democracy would overshadow these religious differences? Only a fool would say yes. Nevertheless, the U. S. government said, "Yes." The transition we envision will take twenty or more years, not just one, or five. I seriously doubt that this was the plan of our government.

These illustrations could be multiplied repeatedly. Our egos tell us that American democracy is the answer to the world's troubles. We call this ethnocentrism—"We are the best people on earth." We will never be successful in the world of politics until we recognize that there are other cultures alongside ours.

Immaculate Conception of Mary

For years I have told students about the Immaculate Conception of Mary doctrine. On December 8, in 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, asserting that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved from the effects of original sin from the first instant of her conception. In that way when Jesus was born he would not be tainted by original sin.

The doctrine of original sin says that all are born in sin. One suggestion is that the act of conception itself is an act of lust, therefore an act of sin. Others would suggest that it is a part of our genetic makeup. Because of this doctrine another false doctrine developed--the baptism of infants.

Roman Catholics believed until just recently that infants who died without baptism went to Limbo, a region supposedly just on the edge of hell. Unbaptized infants (including miscarriages) could not go to Purgatory to be eventually purified like the rest of us get to do, and certainly could never go to heaven. By papal decree that doctrine has now been removed from the Roman Catholic church.

We lash out at the Mormons for their Book of Mormon and the Muslims for the Quran, but what has been done by popes and councils of the Roman Catholic Church is no different.

Mary was a normal woman who had a special experience. She was impregnated by God to bring Jesus into the world. After that since she was married she had at least four other children. She would die a widow in the care of the Apostle John. She should be honored for her faith and devotion to God, but nothing more. She is not worthy of worship any more than any other good person.

Marriage and children are part of the plan of God to continue the population on the planet on which we are placed. Sex is a special gift given to human beings to enjoy within the confines of marriage. There is nothing sinful about this act within the marriage bonds. So to elevate people who choose not to get married is unscriptural. That is not the way we were designed. Jesus said that some people would choose the single lifestyle and others would be forced into it, but he did not say that this made anyone better than those who were married.

We only need to look at the disaster this has created in the Roman Catholic Church to realize that even so-called celibate priests can lose control. If they had been allowed to follow God's program of marriage then the massive lawsuits that the Roman Catholics are experiencing would never have resulted.

And I stood in awe

Recently in a class at MCC, I led a discussion among the students regarding someone that they highly respected. The term "awe" indicates the highest level of respect, which really should be reserved for God. However, we use the term to speak of people whom we highly respect. As I thought about this, I told the class the great respect I had for my father.

Until I was about 15 years old, there was no greater man in my life than my father. I believed in his dreams, especially those when we would have our own "Jimmy" diesel truck and would be making the big bucks we believed that truck drivers made. We had the biggest Chevrolet available, which was a 2-ton truck. I can remember that we had come close to starving to death working in the logging business. Disgusted my father came home and a local trucker who knew my dad has this truck called to tell him that if he could get a dump bed on the truck he could go to work. The job was hauling slag (waste metal) from the local smelter (AS&R) to Climax Colorado to provide a base to place a huge conveyor from the mine to the mill. The job would pay $10.00 a load and my father could plan to make 8-10 loads a day. As I rode back and forth with my dad we talked about the "Jimmy" diesel we would soon have. However, we never got the "Jimmy" and my dad would die in 1974 working in a uranium mine in Moab Utah.

My dad was among the hundreds of children of his day who never got beyond the 8^th grade in school. The same was true of my mother. Nevertheless, through reading and personal development they educated themselves to at least a high school level. My dad was an excellent musician, able to play guitar, harmonica, and accordion. He did not read music but he quickly picked up tunes. A special event was whenever we had a private concert at home. My dad never attempted to do anything professional in music and now that he is gone so is the music he made. I always dreamed of being able to sing as well as my dad, but it never happened.

My dad was a classic shade tree mechanic who could fix anything that had an engine in it. There is a man in the church where I minister is almost a reincarnation of my dad. The church fellow cannot sing though. Otherwise, in habit, demeanor, and abilities they are two peas from the same pod. He worked for years as a mine-mechanic in the mines around Kokomo and Leadville Colorado. I remember the bizarre working hours my father had. Sometimes he went to work at 4:00 in the afternoon and got home after midnight or go to work at 3:00 in the morning and get home around noon. The shifts changed every two weeks. I do not how he was able to establish any pattern of sleep. I do remember that regardless of the time of day he got up or got home, my mother had a hot meal on the table for him.

The greatest year I had with my dad was when I was 13 years old. I spent the entire summer working in the woods with him. My working was certainly illegal because of my age, but no one seemed to care. I had my own ax and I worked alongside my dad as he cut trees for lumber. My job was to help to trim off the limbs. We walked up the mountain every day together, worked hard all day and then came back to the logging camp for supper. Some weekends we would return to Leadville to be with the rest of the family.

When I became a Christian and later went into the ministry, my father was very disappointed. He wanted me to have a good job as the result of a good education so that I would not have to struggle as he did. He did not see that happening in the ministry. Sad to say he never accepted Christ. He was a loner for most of his life and trusted only my mother. Every other friend he had and many families had betrayed his trust to the point that he trusted no one and died without any friends. At his funeral, the only people there were friends of mine and friends of my mother. My father died as he chose to live—alone.

His death was the hardest event I ever faced in my life. After than I had a lot of concern for people who lost loved ones. In the year after my father died, I began attending funerals especially for people whom I knew were not loved by many. I realized that funerals were for the living not the dead. The saddest funeral I attended during that time was for the child of one of my students. The baby was a beautiful normal little girl. However, when she was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around her throat and before they could get it off she was dead. This was the first baby for the couple and she died in such a tragic way. I was the only person at the funeral. No grandparents, friends, or relatives. I wept alongside the couple as they laid their child to rest. I promised myself I would never allow anyone to go through that alone if there was some way I could be there. I have kept that promise and have attended funerals for people I never knew because I knew someone I knew that needed comfort at that time loved them.

This Day in History—December 7

This Day in History—December 7, 2007

For older Americans December 7, 1941 is a day "that will life in infamy." Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands was attacked early on a Sunday morning resulting in the sinking of much of the U. S. Navy as well as the destruction of most of the aircraft on the ground. The event plunged America into World War II. Congress declared war on both Japan and Germany at the same time. I was not old enough to remember this when it happened, but in the congregation where I minister there are people who remember well the event. Some of them would fight in World War II and some would lose loved ones there as well.

It is hard to believe that the last time we had a man on the moon was in 1972, 35 years ago. That person was Eugene Cernan, who commanded the last Apollo flight. Along with that, it is interesting to look at the aircraft we use and discover that much of it came into existence before that time as well.

It is also noteworthy that the Unites States officially entered World War I on this date in 1917. In just a year, the armies of America would provide the necessary assistance to drive the Germans back to Germany. It is always offensive to me that the French forget so easily who rescued them in two world wars or otherwise they would still be part of the German empire. The French are a very ungrateful people as far as I am concerned. Perhaps the next time we should just let them wallow in the control of their enemies.