Things like that happen in basketball sometimes...

First, I am kinda shocked that a fight breaks out in a WNBA game. It is not that I do not think that women could or would fight, but at the same time, I feel that women are less physical than men are and would find some other devious way to get back at each other than fighting. I have never watched a complete WNBA game because it bores me, but really, the only basketball I watch anymore is the NCAA Tournament and maybe some NBA playoffs. Who wants to watch 9 people stand around while one person throws up a crazy shot that he gets called amazing for it if it goes in and has a good night if he goes 8-24 and scores 25 points?

The worst thing about the fight that happened in the game between the LA Sparks and Detroit Shock is the comments of players after the game.

DeLisha Milton-Jones shoved and punched Mahorn after the incident with Leslie, and was ejected, along with Mahorn, Parker and Pierson. Nolan and Shannon Bobbitt received technicals.
“That was unfortunate, but things like that happen in basketball sometimes,” Milton-Jones said. “The league is going to have to decide what kind of action to take.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/wnba/recap?gid=20080722010&prov=ap

No Delisha, things like that do not happen in basketball games sometimes. Fighting is not part of the basketball game. Naismith never planned on having people fight when they were trying to shoot a ball through a peach basket. Nowhere in the rules is fighting allowed and if players are ejected for fighting then the rules must say that fighting is not something that is supposed to happen in basketball games. It does not happen sometimes. It happens when people lose self-control and become prideful. Fighting happens when somebody decides to impose his or her will on another person.

I understand people get mad and people foul hard, but is fighting really the answer. Whatever happened to if you foul me hard I will be sure to score on you next time down the court? Fighting becomes the answer when players have more confidence in their ability to physically harm somebody than they do in their basketball skills. If you want to prove your fighting skills, join a boxing league or ultimate fighter and leave basketball to people who want to prove their skills in running, dribbling, shooting and passing.

Loneliness

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God. – Mother Theresa, A Simple Path p.79

I cannot shake this quote from my head. This Fourth of July weekend I spent a couple of hours visiting an elderly couple who are members of my church. A man named Harry and his wife Ellen. I am not sure exactly what is wrong with Harry, perhaps it is only old age, but he cannot walk by himself. He has a walker with wheels that he uses to help him move around. He cannot be left alone because he might fall and injure himself or not be able to stand back up. Ellen moves around just fine and likes to get out and go places, but she very seldom gets the chance because she has to watch Harry.

I told her that I would come over and spend some time with Harry so she could get out and run some errands. I had a good time. Harry and I talked about some minor things and then we turned on the TV and watched This Old House. When Ellen came back from running some errands, we had some pineapple cake. It was good stuff.

One of the errands that Ellen did while she was out was to go by the bookstore and pick out some new books for her to read. I asked her if she liked to read and her response was, ‘yeah, it passes the time and takes my mind off of other things.’ My heart broke when she said that. Harry would probably be best off in an assisted living facility, but Ellen is nowhere near that state and I cannot imagine her sending him to a place apart from her. Ellen has a daughter and she visits every now and then, but they could definitely use more attention. Harry has children that live in Tennessee but he said he never sees them. His grandchildren are my age and they are off and about busy making their own lives.

So Harry and Ellen, in the midst of a big city, live in a world of loneliness. How many people are dying to have somebody to talk to, somebody to spend time with, somebody to listen and care and somebody to just be there? I imagine there are many. I do not claim to do well. My grandmother does all right, but I do not call her near enough. Perhaps once a month I have contact with her. Shame on me.

Perhaps the greatest disease is not loneliness it is selfishness or worse yet, independence. The idea that I can live totally separated from the world around me and be just fine causes me to forget that others need me. Independence, selfishness, busyness, become detrimental to my soul and to the lives of others.

It is Not to Make it Better

He [Rich Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National
Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella organization for evangelical churches
and ministries] said he told Obama: "Religious Americans want to know why is it
you love this country and what it stands for and how we can make it better."

Full article found here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080611/ap_on_el_pr/obama_religion

It sounds like Rich Cizik thinks that the goal of Christians in America is to make America better. While this might not sound terribly wrong and I am sure many people agree with the idea, I think Cizik and the Religious Americans he represents have misunderstood the message of Christ. The end goal of Christians is not to make America better. If that were the case, the church would merely be another civic organization. It would be no more than the boy scouts, Kiwanis, or any other social systems improving organization.

The goal of Christians in America should not be a better America. The goal should be that God’ kingdom would come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Granted in the process of this happening, I believe that not only America but also all other nations will be better; however, the end goal is not one nation in itself, but rather the world. Moreover, the goal is not to make the world better but to be an agent of transformation in the world and to play a part in the reconciliation of the world back to God.

Asking the question how Religious Americans can make the country better is ridiculous. If you say you are a Christian, you should know how you could make this country better. That is by doing what the Lord requires of you: do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). Or you can feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison, love your enemy, love your neighbor, bless those who persecute you, take care of the widow and orphan, welcome the sojourner, live in harmony with one another, etc…

Doubt in Christianity

The greatest cause of doubt in my life is the lack of effort on the part of people who say they follow God. If people truly believe in a God that loves the world and wants to be in relationship with the world and a God that says to go make disciples of all nations. If we really believed in a God on whom believing in effected eternity, I would think that more people who said they believed in God would care a little bit more. If I had the greatest news the world has ever known, would I not be more inclined to share that.

I do not feel that I doubt God; rather I doubt how a God so powerful and so amazing could be so taken for granted. If God created the world and everything in it, how is this God so easily ignored? I do not think I would be so troubled about belief in God if people who actually said they believed in God acted as if it had the slightest impact on their lives other than a measly hour that they give on Sunday or Saturday or whenever.

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. — Brennan Manning

I think it is hard for people who believe to keep believing. I am not an example nor could I even attempt to be a complete example of what it means to truly follow Christ, however, finding some cause for hope could be helpful. I know there are many great organizations and people around the world to look at for good examples of what it means to follow Christ, but I struggle when I examine the general church body. Do we really have faith or are we just covering our bases?

Perhaps its fear that causes me not to share. Fear of what others might think of me. It is the fear that I might seem crazy or out of the loop or not part of the norm within society. But surely I should have the boldness that I am not redeemed by the evaluation of my peers but by my hope in the cross of Christ. Whom shall I fear is not that others might harm me, but that the opinions of others should not worry me. (Psalm 27:1) ‘The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?’

On Immigration

Inscribed in the Statue of Liberty is this phrase from the poem “New Colossus.”

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost, to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

This makes it seem as though we want people to come to the United States. It makes it sound as if we don’t just want rich people, instead it makes it seem as though the people that we are telling to come here are the lowest of the low, the poorest of the poor. We are asking for the wretched refuse of other countries to come here. In the early 1800’s America was a nation of hope for many. It was a place that said it will provide opportunity for those who had no opportunity in their home country. Those homeless in other countries could find a home here.

Fast forward almost 200 years and we see an America that is building walls on its boarders and patrolling them with guns so that the tired, poor, wretched masses that are yearning to breathe free cannot enter this country. It sounds like quite a contradiction to have a wall on one border and a bold statement like the Statue of Liberty in a harbor on the other side of the country.

Perhaps we should look to our history to figure out what we should do about immigration. Maybe we need to remember that as a nation we once said that we would welcome all comers and especially welcome the tired and the poor and the wretched.

War Pigs

"I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him," Rice said. "I guess that's the
message; his followers can go to their deaths and he's in Iran."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080420/ap_on_re_mi_ea/rice;_ylt=AikalUbqs98TK6A7KZLFeolBXYh4)

Is that only the message of Muqtada al-Sadr? I don’t see Condy or Bush grabbing their guns to go fight in the streets of Baghdad. It seems as though it is the message of the American leaders as well. If Bush is too important to go fight in Iraq than why would al-Sadr not be too important to his Mahdi army to go fight in Iraq. Heaven forbid that our enemy fight the same way that we do. What are they thinking? Don’t they know that they have a different set of rules to follow.

We are the good guys remember. They are the bad guys. It is only cheating or cowardice if they do it. It is bravery and courage when we do it. This is nothing against people who are over their fighting, rather, it is against those who sent them over there to fight and then set around in their million dollar homes. I bet we would have a lot less war in the world if the people who actually started the wars had to participate in them.

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor
(from Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”)

Right to Bear Arms

"But clearly, the prime minister has laid down some ground rules which any
functioning democratic state would insist upon, having to do with, you know,
arms belonging to the state, not to -- not in private hands," she
said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080420/wl_mcclatchy/2915454

This is pretty interesting if you ask me. It seems that a comment like this should have the NRA up in arms, excuse my pun. Any functioning democratic state could probably refer to the US though I’m not sure everybody would agree it’s functioning. If that is the case that means that we should have some form of gun control here in the US. I am not necessarily calling for that, but it sounds like Condy definitely thinks it is appropriate. Arms do not belong in private hands. At least not in a functioning democratic state.

Some people might want to argue that it is a different scenario since she is talking about Iraq. But she doesn’t say that these are good ground rules for Iraq. She says these are ground rules for any functioning democratic state. How can you be okay with a constitutional right to bear arms in one democratic nation, but in another democratic nation you think that arms belong to the state and not in private hands? It is definitely a double standard and definitely an example of Condy trying to speak out of both sides of her mouth.