Joltin' Joe has left and gone away

It's been awhile, but I've covered this ground before:

• I asked Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?
• After some feedback, I clarified some of those thoughts with More on the Eclipse of the Great American Hero.
• And finally I found some satisfaction in getting to watch The Josh Hamilton Redemption begin to play out one night at old Yankee Stadium.

And if you don't want to go re-read all of that, essentially this was the root of my frustration:

I still find myself dejected over this sad state of affairs. It isn't because I just realized that there is hopelessness where I had always expected there to be hope. I think it is more that I wish to see my faith played out on that stage of public celebrity. I want to see some light shine through. I want to see some evidence in the world -- that I can point to... that I can show to others -- to say, "Here is where the Reign of God is breaking in & making a difference. Here is where the beacon on a hill is shining."

I know that Christ has forgiven us of all our sins (lowercase-"s"). But what about the (uppercase-"S") Sin problem here, while we're still on Earth? The cross has salvific power for eternity, and Scripture is witness to that. But also, the logic of the cross overcomes the problem in the here & now of the power of Satan in our lives. It's not enough to just have our record expunged. I want my heart washed clean, too.

And, so, it would be marvelous to find more examples, that are in public view, of humanity overcoming. I know some of you are still going to argue, "You're looking in the wrong place." I don't think I am. I'm just looking for that city on a hill. And I suppose my point in all this is that it's hard to find in celebrity. I want to be able to point at someone and say, "See, Christ works even THERE!"

That's a nice sentiment. But the more I've thought about it, it's a sentiment that's not completely honest. Because, whether or not I knew it at the time, I wanted to do more than point. I wanted to worship.

---

Worship is what we do with celebrities. Of all kinds -- whether from sports, politics, Hollywood, private enterprise, or the music industry.

Even before tabloids there was a fascination with celebrity. In the Bible, when Israel had no King, they coveted other nation's that had one. And they begged God for one. So he up & gave them what they wanted. So Israel finally had it's King.

This urge to crown Kings is at the root of some of humanity's best stories. Tell me -- how many of our ancient legends or fictional stories are a variation on this basic premise:

"ONCE- there was a great King. Who ruled with wisdom and power and justice and compassion -- all at once! And therefore, when the King was there, the land experienced a Golden Age. And everyone blossomed and we all reached our potential. The land blossomed, the arts blossomed, our relationships blossomed, civilization blossomed.

"BUT- something has taken the King away. So everything has deteriorated. Everything has fallen into disrepair & decay.

"BUT- we look for the day in which the King will come back."

(HT Tim Keller, "Jesus Our King")

How many of our stories trace these themes? Robin Hood. King Arthur. Lord of the Rings. The current Batman franchise of movies. That just off the top of my head. There are so many others. How many more?

And why is this the case? Why this fascination with Kings? Why this need to crown them? When the actual record of human kings is terrible. When you survey the landscape of history, the actual record of kings is nothing but a trail of tyranny, tragedy, and broken-ness. There's a very good reason we don't have kings any longer. We decided it was a good idea to get rid of all the kings! We've replaced nearly all of them with Democracies.

And yet still: a good story about a king has a powerful impact on us. Why?

I'm convinced now that it's because we were wired to worship. We were made to give our devotion to someone. As the ancient writer said: "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you."

The problem is this: we have this culture where we are invited to misplace our worship in any number of ways. We're even honest about it. We have a TV show called "American Idol." We even call our sports heroes idols.

Sportscaster Bob Costas put it this way 17 years ago when he eulogized Mickey Mantle:

And more than that, he was a presence in our lives-a fragile hero to whom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defied logic. Mickey often said he didn't understand it, this enduring connection and affection-for men now in their 40s and 50s, otherwise perfectly sensible, who went dry in the mouth and stammered like schoolboys in the presence of Mickey Mantle.

Maybe Mick was uncomfortable with it, not just because of his basic shyness, but because he was always too honest to regard himself as some kind of deity.

But that was never really the point. In a very different time than today, the first baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, said every boy builds a shrine to some baseball hero, and before that shrine, a candle always burns.

For a huge portion of my generation, Mickey Mantle was that baseball hero.'

In a time where baseball monopolized America what Judge Landis said was true. But now, with so many sports & entertainment options, boys (and even grown men) have shrines to all manner of heroes.

For generations of men in Pennsylvania, that shrine was built for JoePa. He was a great ball-coach. He represented winning, yes. But more than that. His credo was "success with honor." He championed the Penn State way. He represented doing things right, not taking short-cuts, and being people of integrity. Once, when asked when he would retire, he quipped that he would not leave the game "to the Jackie Sherrills and Barry Switzers." And those who worshiped at the feet of Paterno pumped their fist. Because Joe was their crusader. Wrestling the trophies away from those who would get down in the slop & dirty up the game we loved.

Penn State isn't unique in this way. I like the way Cecil Hurt put it:

Part of the culture which made denial possible in Happy Valley is a mentality that takes hold most tenaciously with success, one in which the football program isn't simply successful, or an asset to the community or the engine of a powerful economic machine. An attitude develops that the program is "good" (and, by extension, that most of its rivals are "bad").

All the great paeans of the great white knight Joe Paterno... Rick Reilly calls them idotic hagiography.

Hagiography: writing about the lives of saints. Beyond just putting people up on pedestals. But putting them on thrones & placing halos over their heads. When really they're just human.

You know what Saint Joe did 18 months ago when he found out that his old pal & assistant Jerry Sandusky was under investigation? When Joe could feel the noose tightening around his own neck? He did what most folks would do: he gave into instincts of self-preservation. He took Penn State University to the negotiating table and extorted them for a sweet contractual exit package. He transferred ownership of his home to his wife. Because he knew what was coming. It was like a slow motion train wreck for him. And he was shielding Sue & the rest of his family from the liability locomotive that was barreling down the tracks directly at them.

That's a far cry from the philanthropic image of Joe Paterno. The man who gave millions of dollars back to the University he worked for. Nevertheless, in the end, Joe & his sons were using whatever leverage they could to extract whatever benefits they could out of that University.

Hardly a saint. Idiotic hagiography.

Some people still have a hard time accepting the truth about Joe. After the Freeh Report was released last week, someone placed a sign at Joe Paterno's statue that read, "Remember: He was a man, not God!!!" It seems that at least one person couldn't accept that:

This was passed onto me by Mary Curran. Someone ripped the Paterno statue sign, which said, 'he was a man, not a god' twitter.com/sganim/status/…

— Sara Ganim (@sganim) July 15, 2012

It seems to be a ferocious thing to step between someone & the object of their worship.

---

We all would be better off if we kept the sobering lessons of this tragedy in our minds. Lesson #1 being this: protect the defenseless.

But while fans with their Joe Paterno shrines have furiously been defending the man, I appreciated these words from one of Joe's best players & one of Penn State's best ambassadors-- LaVar Arrington:

"If you really think about it, how much do I really know [coach Joe Paterno]?" Arrington told the "Wetzel to Forde" radio show. "How much do we really know him? I know the coaching figure - just like with Jerry Sandusky, I knew the coaching figure. I mean, there's obvious ways of looking at this right now with 20-20 hindsight, but I didn't know the person I thought I did."

The next time you're tempted to go use all your social media powers defend the honor of Barack Obama... or Mitt Romney... or Ron Paul...

or your favorite coach... or your favorite player...

or your favorite billionaire... or your favorite writer...

...as deeply as you may desire to offer your devotion to somebody -- as much as you may want to sit that person on the throne of your heart & place a crown on their head...

that person is just a person. How well do you really know them?

On Paterno

How ironic can names be? Consider with me:

• A man who grows up to become the General Manager of George Steinbrenner's New York Yankees... named CASHMAN

• An already famous man who becomes infamous for tweeting out a picture of his manhood... named WEINER

• A guy who runs a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi Scheme for decades, defrauding thousands of people & living off their wealth… named MADOFF

And, now-- we have a man who was a revered father figure for multiple generations of young men. Who, as it turns out, abandoned children who were in need of just such a father figure & protector. Who, as we learned in yesterday's Freeh Report, shielded a monster by acting like the father figure of a family mafia.

... named PATERNO.

The lionized leader of the Nittany Lions who, it turns out, was the definition of duplicity.

That's a lot of levels of irony. But it's no joke. Not for the victims of the man who Joe Paterno and his superiors lackeys protected.

A lot of good writers have already weighed in on Paterno. About how he was a derelict father figure. Or about how he was a a liar. Even about how Paterno's legacy now stands. An excerpt from that Dan Wetzel column:

There is no denying Paterno was a positive force in many lives, a gifted coach and motivator and, until now, a fine image for Penn State. None of that equals his shame.

The reason Paterno was able to wield such influence is the outsized value placed on college sports and the coaches who deliver those winning programs. A “pyramid of power,” Freeh described it. And anyone pointing to all the players he helped is just repeating the same pathetic concept.

Paterno did help his football players. Those men, however, were heavily recruited, talented and often highly motivated people. If they hadn’t gone to Penn State they would’ve gone to Michigan or Virginia or Notre Dame.

For decades he found a way to take top-line kids and maximize what they could do, usually by motivating them to excel at a sport they already loved. They were subject to mass adulation and had the potential to become millionaires at the professional level.

He wasn’t taking illiterate third-world children and getting them to Harvard. Almost every person Paterno positively impacted through football would have fared similarly had Penn State not even fielded a team. They just would have played elsewhere. Bo Schembechler or Lou Holtz or Bobby Bowden would’ve coached them up in football and life, just like Paterno did.

Conversely, the kids that Jerry Sandusky tricked, molested and in certain ways destroyed wouldn’t have lived the same life had Paterno done the right thing. They were attacked, out of nowhere. Without fault. Without provocation. Without the opportunity to create their own destiny.

The lives of these kids were profoundly and forever destroyed because of the actions of Sandusky, Spanier, Schultz, Curley and, yes, Joe Paterno.

There could never be enough victories, enough perfect graduation rates, enough national championships to justify that.

Joe Paterno was a great influence on men who were already likely to live great lives, men who could help him win football games.

He was a failure to those Second Mile boys who had no such talents, no such opportunity, no parade of recruiters looking to offer them scholarships. He turned his back on the very kids that were desperate for the kind of hero that Joe Paterno’s former legacy claimed he was all about.

And yet there are those who persist in saying that Joe Paterno was a man who "lived a profoundly decent life." Like Joe Posnanski, the man whose biography on Paterno will be published next month. And far be it from me to put words in Posnanski's book that the public has yet to see. But I suspect he will make mention of the lives Paterno touched that are touching others in tremendously positive ways.

Can you ignore that? You may have heard the Scriptures (1 Peter 4:8, James 5:20) that highlight the possibility of covering over a multitude of sins. But is it possible for a sin to cover over the magnitude of having “lived a profoundly decent life?”

I guess it depends on who is keeping the moral ledger. In the eyes of public opinion, I suppose the answer is 'yes.' The weight of Paterno's misdeeds is leading the media to tear his reputation asunder. "Not even a lifetime of heroism can make up for leaving a single child alone, abandoned to evil, weeping in the dark." (NYT) "Like the Roman Catholic Church, Penn State is an arrogant institution hiding behind its mystique." (NYT) Certainly the courts will follow public opinion. There may be nothing left but a heaping crater after the civil liability lawyers get finished with Penn State. Not to mention the separate on-going investigations being conducted by the Attorney General's Office of Pennsylvania, the FBI, and the Federal Department of Education. That last one is especially frightening for a University. Making the on-going NCAA investigation look paltry by comparison.

But public opinion can be such a capricious moral judge. And if our moral compass is only as actuated as the scale of punitive damages that may be exacted, then that compass is broken.

I think Dan Wetzel artfully explains (above) how that the magnitude of these wrong-doings overwhelm the good Joe Paterno has done. But does it wipe out the good in it’s entirety? No. Because Paterno’s influence in the lives of his players persists. Players that in fact did not go to UVA or Notre Dame. Who were shaped and molded by Paterno & who are shaping and molding others with positive values. That’s what makes this so complicated.



I'll say this- the statue & shrine at Penn State University that lionizes Paterno as a “Humanitarian” has to be removed. The Freeh Report showed very clearly how PSU weighed the sentiment of being "humane." It had everything to do with how Paterno & co. weighed treating Jerry Sandusky. It had nothing to do with how Paterno & co. weighed the lives of children who had been raped. Not to mention the ones who would be raped over the next decade. Yes- the statue has to go. Has to. It mocks Penn State University (and everything that Joe said he stood for) as long as it stays up.

And even in some ways still I pity Paterno. The choices he had before him in 1998 and beyond weren’t clean. As a good buddy wrote to me, “Paterno had a right choice, but he didn’t have a nice choice.” I think that's right. Paterno didn't ask for this. He had a serious decision thrust upon him. And he made the wrong choice to cover willfully for a monster.

I just hope that you & I make better decisions if, God forbid, we’re ever faced with a right choice that’s not a nice choice.

Standing on Their Shoulders

My friend Mark wrote an inspirational blog entry about his home church yesterday. I couldn't help but reflect on my own spiritual heritage as I read Mark's great testimony (growing up listening to R. Harris -- I'm still jealous!).

Scripture teaches us that we can learn the truth about people, or even institutions, by their fruit. I can't help but be overwhelmed at the moment considering how fortunate I am to have been hanging around the right orchards all my life. Mark is a minister. I'm a minister. It's the good, strong, solid, healthy churches that manufacture our ministers. As I survey my life, I sense that I'm the product of more than just one of these environments.

My home church in Panama City, the Jenks Avenue Church of Christ, has had a hand in producing at least 4 ministers since I was a young, adolescent member there (among them some may know David Black, Daniel Cherry, and Dannie Rio). And it is still producing ministers -- there are some encouraging young men coming up through the ranks of that youth group right now.

We were each mentored by the preaching minister there for over 35 years now: Jack Reece. He's not the most impressive orator (I believe his favorite line to deliver at lectureships is that he feels like "a mule among thoroughbreds"), but he is the preeminent example in each of our 4 lives of humble service. For me, he is the model for what I want to accomplish professionally in my life. He's partnered with God in building my home church. He converted some of his own Shepherds. By any measure, a great man. I could go on & on about Jack.

Heck, even when I was in high school, I was around a bunch of developing ministers. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a magnet high school program called International Baccalaureate at my Alma Mater, Rutherford HS. Of the 60-odd high-achieving kids (who have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, Congressional aids, FBI & NSA agents, etc.) in my graduating class, at least 4 of them are in full-time ministry today.

And then, before I went to Harding, I was a part of a vibrant campus ministry at the University of Florida that produced a lot of ministers while I was there. By my count, in just my two years in "Gators for Christ" at the University City Church of Christ, I saw that ministry produce 4 ministers and 2 Christian counselors. One of those ministers left his Ph.D. Psychology program (then ranked the #1 Clinical Psych program in the nation), which he had a full-paid scholarship for, to go study at Harding Grad to become a minister. Another already had an engineering degree from Georgia Tech -- he's now in full-time ministry. That's how much drawing power & influence that the Gospel had through that ministry.

Then I got to go spend three years at Harding University. One of my friends likes to say that we walked amongst "spiritual giants." The friendships I forged & the lessons I learned have served me and the people I minister to -- and will for years to come.

And now I'm working with the Lynn Haven Church of Christ. We're a small family of 40. But in my two and a half years there, they have grown up so much. One of the prominent members is just a couple of years older than me -- he's the manager of the largest branch of a local, popular credit union. His wife is owner of a local girls dance studio. Their mission is to grow that dance studio up large enough so that he can quit his prominent job & work full-time with our small church family. He's a minister waiting to happen.

God has placed me in fruitful environments, and allowed me to incubate in some of His greatest churches. I've been exorbitantly blessed. All I can do is just praise God.

Steinbrenner. As Usual.

Eleven months ago, Joe Torre's contract was up & the offer that Hank Steinbrenner delivered was essentially a slap in the face. Everybody saw the writing on the wall: the Yankees had had enough of Torre, and were ready to move on. The only reason he received that piddling offer at all was simply a politically-strategic tip of the cap by Hank to what Torre had done to bring 4 World Series titles in his tenure.

Here we are almost a full year later. The Torre-led Dodgers (currently holding an 83-76 record in a competitively weak division) have clinched a playoff berth. The Torre-less Yankees (with an 87-72 record in what is widely-considered the toughest division in baseball) have been eliminated from the playoffs.

So what's a Steinbrenner to do? Hank's father, George, would make sweeping changes, take verbal pot-shots, and generally look foolish & inadequate in his attempts to defend his own massive ego. However, according to the media & sports talk radio, Hank is DIFFERENT! He's more calculating; he's SMARTER! He won't repeat the mistakes of his father, and he is the agent of change to oversee a new reign of Yankee dominance in the coming years.

Too bad that's just a fallacious fantasy. Hank has already demonstrated that George's same insecure blood runs through his Yankee blue-blooded veins. ESPN's Page2 writer Jim Caple seems to have a skill for lampooning the Steinbrenners, as he did with this hillarious column back in the spring. To me, it came close to topping his famous "Praise Steinbrenner" column (starring the former Iraqi information minister, Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf) from several years back.

So how has Hank responded this week to Joe's success coupled with his own franchise's failure? From an article attributed to him in the Sporting News (thanks to The Newark Star-Ledger):

• On revenue sharing: "That's a system I don't particularly like. It's a socialist system, and I don't agree with it. Does it work? It depends on your point of view. But is it right? Is it even American? I'd argue no on both of those points."

• On the divisional setup: "... If you want to talk about things that infuriate me about the game today, revenue sharing doesn't top the list. The biggest problem is the divisional setup in major league baseball. I didn't like it in the 1970s, and I hate it now. Baseball went to a multidivision setup to create more races, rivalries and excitement. But it isn't fair. You see it this season, with plenty of people in the media pointing out that Joe Torre and the Dodgers are going to the playoffs while we're not. This is by no means a knock on Torre -- let me make that clear--but look at the division they're in. If L.A. were in the A.L. East, it wouldn't be in the playoff discussion. The A.L. East is never weak."

• On Joe Torre: "I'm happy for Joe, but you have to compare the divisions and the competition. What if the Yankees finish the season with more wins than the Dodgers but the Dodgers make the playoffs? Does that make the Dodgers a better team? No."

• On his case for the divisional setup not being good for the game: "Go back to the 2006 season. St. Louis winning the World Series -- that was ridiculous. The Cardinals won their division with 83 wins -- two fewer than the Phillies, who missed the postseason. People will say the Cardinals were the best team because they won the World Series. Well, no, they weren't. They just got hot at the right time. They didn't even belong in the playoffs. And neither does a team from the N.L. West this season."

• On the media: "The divisional setup is not right by any definition of logic. But the sports media rarely deals with logic -- so you never read about this."

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I like what Bud Poliquin had to say:

Now, does Steinbrenner have a point to make when he declares the eight best squads in baseball don't necessarily comprise the postseason field? Well, yeah. But so what? That has forever been the case whether we're talking the NCAA Tournament's 65 teams (hello, Syracuse University, in 2007), the NBA playoffs (greetings, Golden State, just this spring), the NFL postseason (where some wretched group from the NFC West will qualify later this winter) and so on and so forth.

Baseball? The geographical gods can giveth (as they have forever done to the Yankees, who enjoy the vast revenue streams generated by the kind of dense population that, oh, Kansas City will never see) and they can taketh away (which they've done for so long now to the Jays and Orioles, to name just two cursed franchises). And [those geographical gods] can do so without having to consult with Henry Steinbrenner, despite what Henry might think.

Yeah, certain things are unfair, all right. And George's son ought to be thankful because if he'd been sired by, say, a short-order cook (not there's anything wrong with that) as opposed to a ship-building magnate, he might be flipping a burger even now.

Ouch. Put simply: "Just hush up, Hank."

Of course I hope my Red Sox win it all this October. But if they or the Rays happen to fall to Torre's Dodgers this October, I will enjoy the heck out of Joe Torre making Hank Steinbrenner look like an absolute fool.

The Josh Hamilton Redemption

It was one of those special sports moments Monday night. It was one of those moments where you answer the phone when your buddy calls, and your first words aren't, "Hey man," but they are rather, "Are you watching THIS!" And you don't say it in an inquisitive way -- I already knew Jordan was calling precisely because he was watching it. I almost had a, "You had BETTER be watching this" tone in my voice.

Josh Hamilton put on a show in the Homerun Derby at Yankee Stadium Monday night. But you have to know his story to understand what made it so exhilarating: a life and talent marred by drug abuse only to find faith in Christ, clean up his life, and climb back to the top of his sport.

I'm glad I was able to watch it. I'll remember it alongside other meaningful baseball memories (Cal Ripken's 2,131st consecutive game, the Red Sox '04 comeback, even Jon Lester's no-hitter this year, etc.). Every homerun he hit felt like he was beating back evil, cynicism, and the powers that would enslave us all. I know that I didn't keep dry eyes through the whole event -- it, uhhh, got a little dusty in my living room that night. ;)

Peter Gammons put it in perspective, as he so often does so well, telling us that out of the ash heap heroes emerge:

Baseball has always been able to turn the page because of someone and something always grew up out of the rubble, and Josh Hamilton began the process of turning the page on Monday night. It is unbelievable what he has done, and now the nation knows it.
[...]
(On Monday we watched) 55,000 New Yorkers standing and chanting Josh Hamilton's name. We are reminded that baseball can help us remember what we stand for, not against, what we believe, not what we fear, and that while we learn from the past, what we all want is to open the door to the future.

Or, as Rick Reilly said, it was a lousy night to be an atheist.

A few months ago I mourned the eclipse of the Great American hero. Some of you had some well-wishing sentiments, but I was genuinely disheartened about this. And I clarified my dismay:

Still, despite each of you guys' well-put words, I still find myself dejected over this sad state of affairs. It isn't because I just realized that there is hopelessness where I had always expected there to be hope. I think it is more that I wish to see my faith played out on that stage of public celebrity. I want to see some light shine through. I want to see some evidence in the world -- that I can point to... that I can show to others -- to say, "Here is where the Reign of God is breaking in & making a difference. Here is where the beacon on a hill is shining."
[...]
I know that Christ has forgiven us of all our sins (lowercase-"s"). But what about the (uppercase-"S") Sin problem here, while we're still on Earth? The cross has salvific power for eternity, and Scripture is witness to that. But also, the logic of the cross overcomes the problem in the here & now of the power of Satan in our lives. It's not enough to just have our record expunged. I want my heart washed clean, too.

And, so, it would be marvelous to find more examples, that are in public view, of humanity overcoming. I know some of you are still going to argue, "You're looking in the wrong place." I don't think I am. I'm just looking for that city on a hill. And I suppose my point in all this is that it's hard to find in celebrity. I want to be able to point at someone and say, "See, Christ works even THERE!"

If it is true that "to write is to pray," then I praise God for answering in such a fun way! I have my hero, and he is bonafide.

Thank God for heroes.

I like to imagine that we will have a "Josh Hamilton Day" in Heaven. And I can just imagine us on that day, pumping our fists to the rafters as we joyously sing "This is How We Overcome." That's something worth looking forward to.

REVIEW: 3:10 to Yuma

Just Watched:
3:10 to Yuma

My Rating:
5 Stars


The very best Western-style movies are didactic. That is, in the process of telling a gripping story in a desert setting where injustice reigns, Westerns impart a moral precept of some kind. Whether it is teaching a profound lesson about life or revealing some important truth about human nature, the very best Westerns instruct as much as they entertain.

Tombstone framed Wyatt Earp's life (especially the episodes at the OK Corral & on his Vendetta Ride) in Biblical terms of a reckoning. Earp was likened unto "the rider on a pale horse" of Revelation 6:8, which is quoted throughout key moments of the film. Unforgiven took us on a journey with a reformed cold-blooded killer named William Munny. He is pushed. And pushed. And pushed. And when Munny reaches a breaking point, we get to discover how much evil a decent man will suffer before rekindling his former violent ways to suppress an insufferable evil.

3:10 to Yuma continues this tradition of great contemporary Hollywood Westerns. The character development is sensational. Christian Bale plays a down-on-his-luck rancher who has hit rock bottom: he is crippled, he's dirt poor, he's about to lose his land, his boys don't look up to him, and his wife doesn't respect him. How could a man in such dire straits regain his dignity? Russell Crowe plays a renowned Western bandit & gang leader who is on top of the mountain in terms of success at his profession. And, as such, he is a bit of a "bored king." Could even a shred of redeeming goodness be found in the heart of such a rotten, villainous figure? These questions, and more, are asked & answered along the captivating journey that is this film.

The acting is superb. Bale & Crowe are two of the finest actors in Hollywood right now, and this film will grow in stature as it is remembered as having been filmed in the prime of their careers. Bale has the privilege of delivering the most memorable lines of the film, and he delivers them perfectly. He was not nominated for a Golden Globe, and I will be highly disappointed if he is not announced as a nominee for an Academy Award when those Oscar nominations are released Tuesday morning. Russell Crowe simply has the greatest range of any Hollywood actor alive today. And the supporting cast comes through as well. I especially enjoyed the acting of Dallas Roberts. He carries a forceful presence on screen, and I hope to see more of him in future films.

Christian Bale delivers

Finally, truly great films deliver memorable lines that stick with you. Tom Hanks' line about facing God at Judgment Day in The Green Mile comes to mind. Kevin Costner's character asking his father if he wanted to "have a catch" in Field of Dreams. In The Shawshank Redemption, it's Andy Durfresne telling Red, "It's a simple matter, really: Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'." Even the much parodied "You had me at 'Hello'" line from Jerry Maguire. As I alluded earlier, Christian Bale's character gets to deliver a line like that toward the end of the film to his son. It's a line that speaks volumes about the courage and virtue of a man. And, as a man, it causes me to call into question if I am made of the same kind of stuff that made that man great in that moment. When all the superficial reasons for doing the right thing are stripped away, would you still make the right choice? Even when it didn't have to be done? Even when you have a laundry list of reasons not to -- including saving your own neck? Especially when "nobody else would?"

All the way around, this movie gets it right. Regular readers of my reviews are aware that I don't hand these out lightly. But I am giving this movie 5 stars, out of five. Buy it. Watch it. Re-watch it. Cherish it. Because Hollywood doesn't make movies like this very often.

Morality & The Shield

This is the first in what I hope will be at least a three-part series on the subject of morality & ethics that includes meditations from one of my favorite television dramas, "The Shield." I promised this was coming about 10 months ago, and now I'm finally getting around to it. This is a subject that I often think about, as evidenced by having written about this subject before. And I'd love to encourage dialogue in the form of comments here or on your own blogs.

It occurs to me that one of Satan's greatest psychological weapons, among his considerable arsenal, is twisting humanity's sense of what is good and evil. No one is immune. From among those whom we would consider the greatest sinners to those among whom we would consider the greatest saints & do-gooders, Satan works to twist our sense of righteousness. Given my own & my readership's ideology, I'm most interested in how Satan seeks to twist a Christian's understanding of morality.

Some time ago, I came across this illustration from a sermon.

Writer & speaker Joni Erickson Tada was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident. In her book "Secret Strength", Joni wrote about facing temptation.

"I was in my late 20’s, single, and with every prospect of remaining so. Sometimes lust or a bit of fantasizing would seem so inviting and so easy to justify. After all, hadn’t I already given up more than most Christians just by being disabled? Didn’t my wheelchair entitle me to a little slack now and then?"

Joni went on the ask her readers:

"When God allows you to suffer, do you have tendency to use your trials as an excuse for sinning? Or do you feel that since you’ve given God a little extra lately by taking abuse, that He owes you a "day off?"

Hard times can often lead to temptation... In our suffering the evil one is quick to come to our aid and offer one of his solutions; pursuing pleasure to numb the pain, copping an attitude, becoming bitter, getting even, feeding anger...

Vic Mackey IS the law

She's spot on.

One of my favorite television dramas is FX's The Shield. The main character is Detective Vic Mackey, the checkered leader of an experimental anti-gang & drug unit called "The Strike Team." Mackey is good at what he does. He gets results. But he's also in on the take, and Vic rationalizes this practice in a number of ways (e.g. busting down rival drug dealers in certain territories while taking a "tenant's fee" from the drug dealer that he feels he can regulate, so as to keep drugs from completely flooding the streets). Another one of the ways he rationalizes this is how good he is at what he does. In an episode from a recent season, Vic finally pours out his heart concerning why he skimmed off the top, AND why he came clean. He says this:

"It was easy, alright. NO fuss, no victims. I was clearing twice as many cases as anyone here [...] The city was getting their money's worth, trust me.

"But I quit ... because I still wanted to be a cop! Because I can do better."

Fighting for right means not participating in wrong on the side from time to time.

I've experienced this temptation myself. With a group of ministers yesterday in our weekly accountability & encouragement meeting, a couple other ministers gave voice to that temptation. One stated, "I spend all day going & doing for everyone else. When I come home, I want to veg on the couch while my wife serves ME."

It's a form of pride. Effectively, what we're saying to God in those moments is this:

Hey, God, enough already! Alright? I've filled my quota for the day. Get someone else to do your bidding for a while; I've given you plenty. And don't give me that tired, old "Jesus gave it all" line. Six hours one Friday... BULLL-logna. I'd like to see Jesus do what I do.

In those moments, we don't have in mind that Jesus became poor so that we could become rich, that He did for us what we could not do for ourselves, and that everything we have is because of Him. We just want what we want.

There is no viable rationalization for plain, old selfishness. That "old man" (Rom. 6:6) wants to creep back in, get back a foot-hold, and rebel against a soul surrendered to God's will. No amount of do-gooding earns anyone a free ticket to sin. When we begin to think that we can reward ourself by making a wrong decision, we're treading into enemy territory.

Conversation with a Hog Fan: A Study in Fanhood

The following is a set of E-mails with a good friend of mine from college who is a big Hog fan. Here goes…

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: III (that’s ME)
Date: Dec 12, 2007 1:45 PM

Gotta get your thoughts on Bobby Petrino.

Are you happy with him?
How long do you think you’ll keep him?
What do you think of him as a person?
Do you think he will bring a championship to Arkansas?
If so, how long will it take?

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Original Grubb
Date: Jan 7, 2008 1:11 PM

I’m not thrilled with the hire but I think it is a bolder step for the program. One of the board members said something about how the past business model had been 8-4 and that the new business model is a REAL national championship.

I think the hire is immediately good in a couple of areas...namely the PASSING GAME. Which has just continued to get worse and worse and worse.

I think he has to stay at Ark. for at least 4 years to improve his “jumping” image.

I don’t know what to think of him as a person. I think the way he left Atlanta was not ideal. However, that is the business. In the past the Falcons have fired coaches quickly just like most NFL franchises.

I think he should have offered to stay and finish the season, and maybe he did and maybe they said “don’t let the door hit you”. I don’t know. It does seem like what the players wanted though, like it was a SPLIT that was going to happen anyways. In terms of betrayal. I think what Coach FRAN was the WORST. I think Saban was worse, ONLY because he specifically denied not only interest but in ever TAKING the BAMA job. Then he did it. I have no problem with him leaving the FINS for BAMA (though I am a FIN fan) but rather in how he did it.

I do not like how ESPN bashed and bashed him, but that was one thing and then mocking the UA program is not ok. Nutt was chased off for more than just his record and never proving he could take the NEXT STEP. In the past Arkansas’s expectations were just that of being 8-4. Only once in 50 years should the razorbacks be a top 5 team. Yet you look at Kansas, Rutgers, Boise State, Wake Forrest....other programs with similar excuses...small state, no big talent base???? Yet other programs have success. Still it was the DRAMA. The way he mishandled the recruiting and treatment of players, his wife’s involvement in the email and texting and the continual lack of a passing game, and the moral character issue of how he unfairly treated players...someone did DWI and a started was patted on the wrist and the other guy was kicked off the team for GOOD! And again, the inability to develop QB...ala DICK who looks worse as a Junior than he did as a raw 17 year old true freshman when he played at LSU.

I think he could bring a CHAMPIONSHIP to the HOGS but I don’t see it in the next two years. The talent is not all GONE but it is sparse. Pending Felix coming back. The schedule is killer. Play Florida and Texas the next two years plus the regulars of the west and South Carolina at Carolina. The year after that along with the SEC west and Florida, there is Georgia, and Texas and Texas A&M. So 2009 is a bad bad bad year.

The defense is sooo gross though.

And another thing about coach P. that I don’t think I’ve expressed yet is the concern over how he left the sitcha in Louie. Did he leave a bad pile for the new coach to step into in terms of OFF the field problems or...was he the GLUE that was keeping things stable? I don’t know.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: III
Date: Jan 11, 2008 12:01 AM

I love studying fanhood. Its one of my hobbies. And it’s fascinating to hear you talk about Petrino & Arkansas. You almost sound like an Alabama fan talking about Saban! Its hilarious! The similarities:

1) Common hatred for ESPN
2) Remarkable ability to forgive prior sins
3) Having to defend shoving the old guy out the door by…
- a) Having to share insider-type info to back it up
- b) Not settling for mediocrity
- c) Pointing to chronic problems that were never fixed
- d) Claiming that that our program & our “folks” are misunderstood by the national media.

I’m not making fun of you. I promise! I’m just pointing out how similar the logic, rationalization, & propaganda is.

---

As far as the “coaching sins” deal, here’s my take. As long as we live in a world where the two winningest coaches in Division 1A history are perennially on the hot seat, I refuse to fault coaches for looking after themselves by pre-empting their own dismissals. There’s a double-standard that exists here. Organizations & G.M.’s can give their “vote of confidence, still fire a guy, & get away clean, but Nick Saban can’t do the same. Organizations & G.M.’s can fire a coach midseason without repercussion, but if a coach leaves the team midseason he’s quitting on the team.

I understand the point of view that a majority of the nation holds about these two coaches. I just think its biased in favor of “fanhood” of the team. Why should a coach care to be loyal when it will never be shown to him? And this reveals a lack in character in coaches? Sports writers need to get off their sanctimonious high horses. Either that, or NEVER take a better job with a higher salary. When did upward mobility become taboo in our country?

That said, I think Petrino is gone from Arkansas in 3 years time. And Saban will be gone from ‘Bama in at least 5. These men are not settlers. Why would either of us expect that they ever will be? If your MFT studies taught you anything, I’m sure you learned that the best predictor of future behavior is past performance. I think Saban will rebuild Alabama just enough, but will not stick around to suckle off his success—he never has. Petrino will be looking for a new job every offseason—he did just that at Louisville according to Pat Forde (who covered him as a beat writer at that paper before moving on to ESPN).

I do agree with you that Fran is the slimiest one of them all.

Saban is putting together a scary ‘08 recruiting class. If he continues to stack this caliber of class year after year for several years, like he did at LSU, I won’t care whether he stays or goes. Looking at everything right now, I think the Tide re-emerges on the national scene in 2010 with enough flashes of brilliance between now & then to keep our loony fanbase satiated enough.

FWIW, I think Saban is an honorable man in a dishonorable profession. Underneath the veneer, he is a shy boy from West Virginia who doesn’t know how to deal with so much attention. From just listening to his press conferences each week, I can tell that he is a wise man who has keen insight in coaching & human nature. I’m telling you: this is no snake-oil salesman. He’s the genuine article… unless he is the most sociopathic, Machiavellian liar that I’ve ever heard of. I just don’t buy that he could be. I don’t think he could have the level of success that he has if he was. He’s a “Do the Right Thing” kind of guy who could only get what he wanted (having his cake & eating it, too—finishing the job in Miami while wanting to be back in the college game) by doing the wrong thing. I’m sure it will haunt him for the rest of his natural born days, but there was no other way around it.

I’m with you in not knowing what to think about Petrino.

Can Righteousness be a Flaw?

I appreciate art with a purpose. Whether it's a song that drives home a point or a TV show or movie that champions some ideal, I find great fulfillment in purposeful art. You can see it in my lists of favorite movies. The Shawshank Redemption tells us, in the words of Andy Dufresne, that "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." Dead Poets Society urges us all to Seize the Day -- "gather ye rosebuds while ye may." I think it goes back to my days in campus ministry with Gators for Christ. We used to have movie devo's & talk about how whatever film we watched related some spiritual truth or lie.

One of my very favorite movies that's not on my Profile's list is the movie Training Day. In the film, Officer Jake Hoyt (portrayed by Ethan Hawke) has one day to prove to Narcotics Detective Alonzo Harris (portrayed by Denzel Washington) that he can cut it as a NARC working under Harris. Hoyt becomes extremely troubled when he sees how many corners Alonzo Harris cuts. However, you can't argue with Harris' "success." In the movie, Harris says:

"Today's a training day, Officer Hoyt. Show you around, give you a taste of the business. I got 38 cases pending trial, 63 in active investigations, another 250 on the log I can't clear. I supervise five officers. That's five different personalities. Five sets of problems. You can be number six if you act now. But I ain't holding no hands, okay? I ain't baby-sitting. You got today and today only to show me who and what you're made of. You don't like narcotics, get the ---- out of my car. Go get you a nice, (w)ussy desk job, chasing bad checks or something, you hear me?"

(As you can see, I'd recommend that you catch it on cable, where it's edited it out, rather than checking out the copy at your local Blockbuster.)

As the movie progresses, you are given the stark impression that it's Harris & people of his ilk that make a real difference on the streets of L.A. The normal officers in "uni's" who roll around in their "black & white's" can't make a dent in this kind of gang sub-culture. But these guys who have just a little dirt under their fingernails, they're cleaning things up. The fundamental proverb of the entire movie is this line delivered by Alonzo Harris when he's trying to sell Jake Hoyt on his team's methods: "To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf."

Sounds so good it's almost Bible, isn't it?! "God helps those who help themselves." Almost Bible.

My sister & I have been watching another police show via TV on DVD. It's a show about an anti-hero cop who leads a team of "unclean" cops who are trying to, you guessed it, clean up the streets of L.A. They use unorthodox tactics, take a little money on the side, & compromise a little for the main character's sense of the greater good.

We were watching the commentary of one of the shows the other night when they were talking about the flaws of each of the characters on the show. The main character's flaw is clearly his penchant for "compromise" -- he goes overboard & pays for it in spades. And in the end, some justice is done, but you're left with a sense that it's incomplete.

However, there is one detective on the show who always stands up for what's right -- even at one point when it goes against the entire system. The cops in her station, the Chief of Police, District Attorney's Office -- everybody is against her, but she will do the right thing no matter what. And she pays for it in spades. In the end, some justice is done, but you're left with a sense that it's incomplete.

And in the commentary, they're left with the conclusion that this detective's flaw must be her righteousness, or self-righteousness. And they leave the question hanging out there: Can Righteousness be a Flaw?

And as I think of this in relation to ministry, it's an important question. Could it be that in all of our attempts to be shaped like Jesus & formed in his likeness we lose a sense of humanity and, in turn, ability to reach humanity? Is it possible for us to become too pure to reach out & touch the impure? In our fulfillment, joy, & wholeness, do we lose our ability to relate to those who are empty, sad, & broken?

Where do we go for Scriptural reference? Do we look at Ephesians 5:3 where Paul says among us there is not even to be a hint of immorality? Or do we look at Jesus, who hung out with prostitutes & was named with the wine bibbers? I mean, really... how is it you can be called "a friend of sinners" & NOT have any dirt under your finger-nails?

I ask these questions of Scripture. And the more & more I've asked this question of the Bible, the more Scripture comes back with a resoundingly definitive & overwhelmingly unequivocal response:

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

No darkness AT ALL! 1^st John 1 doesn't leave any room for grey. How was Jesus able to spend most of his time around people who had spent most of their time learning how to debase themselves? Some would say divine nature. I say baloney. I chalk it up to strength of will & self-control. The man was a man. Yes, He was God, but he was a man, too. It took all his discipline, but he resisted & maintained his integrity in the face of the devil's temptations.

And Jesus had the opportunity for short-cuts, but he didn't take them. Luke 4 gives us a peak into how Satan presented one short-cut for Jesus:

⁵The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

"Come on, Jesus. Saddle up, partner! You want to start a Kingdom? Let's do it right now -- you & me! Think about it, Messiah:  no more hatred or war; no more hunger or famine; no more poverty; no more disease; no more corruption. The perfect Kingdom here on Earth. You can ease the pains of society. You can perfect what you had a hand in creating in the first place. You can make it right, Jesus. If only you will compromise just this once: worship me. Bow down to me, and all you want is your's!! You won't even have to go to a bloody cross!"

Don't you know that had to be tempting. But God's Kingdom would not be ushered in that way. It would be a Kingdom with one King, and Jesus maintained it's integrity.

If we're going to be about Kingdom business, it has to be done God's way. Compromise is the devil's way. Satan's always encouraging us to get a little dirt under our fingernails. Even tricks us into rationalizing that it will make us better servants of the King:  gaining carnal knowledge of the enemy ... we're doing covert spiritual espionage here! But that rationalization is merely a cover-up for doing whatever it is we know we shouldn't be doing.

Righteousness is no flaw. There's no such thing as being "TOO good." It's a lie, propogated by Satan no doubt, to keep us from pursuing Jesus as radically as we could be. Vigilante righteousness is no righteousness at all. If you really want to be vigilant for something:

"Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the wellspring of life."
Proverbs 4:23

A Hot Button Issue

You know ... you go to college, and you think that you'll learn just about everything you'll need to know about how to be a good minister. You take Bible classes. You read books & articles. You listen to professors & other experienced ministers share as much pastoral wisdom & knowledge as they can possibly transmit. And you even go out & gain a little ministry experience of your own. And after all of that, you begin to think that maybe you've heard it all ... perhaps even seen most everything that could possibly happen with your own eyes. That is until you get surprised.

The lesson today, faithful readers, is this: Never (Ever!) underestimate any given Church's history.

I thought I had a pretty good grip on what the hot button issues were in Churches of Christ today: women's roles & worship styles. That's it, right? Tread carefully around those fiery topics, as well as other long-standing CoC traditional issues (baptism, spiritual gifts, et. al.), and you'll be OK. Right?

Little did I know that this Sunday the hot button issue would be 1^st Peter 5:5a, which reads:

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older.

Pretty straight forward, right? Not much need for Gram-chord here, is there? It says what it means, and it means what it says.

Until one of the younger men in our church (a man under 30 who is looked up to as a leader ... let's call him "Rick") spoke up and said, "I believe that this is true ... UNLESS the 'Elder person' isn't living a Holy Spirit-inspired, cruciform, Godly lifestyle." This sparked the beginning of what I thought was a good discussion on leadership, discipleship, and character.

So when Rick finished his rather long-winded rant regarding elder persons who are unqualified to receive his "submission," and as the discussion was beginning to reach a lull, I decided to push back a little. I roughly said, "Boy ... that sounds like cut & run to me. I think Peter here is assuming that the older persons are faithful. And there are faithful older persons that we should look up to." And I really sort of thought that this statement might fulfill the void left by Rick & bring balance to the discussion. Was I wrong.

Rick once led a vibrant youth group at this small congregation. However, the group dried up as the kids graduated & moved on with no other kids coming up to replace them. Rick told the story of a time when he very visibly & openly tried to bridge a gap between the older & the younger in this church. And when his attempt to do this failed miserably on account of neglect by the older ones in the church, his attempt to bring two age groups completely backfired -- making the youth resentful of their elders, and for a seemingly good & somewhat justified reason.

And he aired this dirty laundry in Bible Class -- in front of God, the old people, and everybody!! I literally thought this was about to explode in my face. I recount at least two episodes in my ministry life where I've had a situation blow up in my face -- that is, in public. (Kellar, you were there for both. Heart-breaking, horrific, and utterly depressing are those memories ...). I thought I was getting ready to add a third.

Rick came dangerously close to tears as he recounted the story for all of us. It was an emotional story ... a story which explains a lot about why this church was in the sorry condition it was when I arrived on the scene. (Not that I've been Mr. Clean, and everything is spick & span now at the Lynn Haven Church of Christ. But the Church is at least moving in the right direction now.) But just when I thought this might turn into an impassioned, acrimonious storm of an argument, the climate completely changed. And the rest of 1^st Peter 5:5 seemed to kick in:

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

    "God opposes the proud
      but gives grace to the humble."

Thankfully, I was granted the last word on this issue. As Rick remained bold in his stance about his unwillingness to follow un-Christ-like elders, I paused, and this is what I said:

"I hear what you're saying, Rick. I really do. ([Interrupting myself] ... and as I told him later one-on-one ... I mean, it is EXTREMELY telling about a void in elders as leaders, after all, that one of the most respected leaders in our church is under the age of 30.) And I think that for the part of the picture you are outlining, you are dead-on correct. Here in 1^st Peter 5, Peter is putting the burden of leadership upon the elders. The onus is on them. And they need to live up to the calling God has placed upon them.

"It's similar to one of my own personal hot button issues: modesty in female dress. Oftentimes, all that is said about this is that women need to dress more modestly. And we place the burden of leadership in this issue on women. We put the onus on THEM! And then we turn around in our Bible classes and, with a straight face, talk about MALE SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP in our assemblies. Are you kidding me?!

"HYPOCRITES, I say!

"As men, and as the male spiritual leaders, the onus ought to be on US! We need to learn the meaning of self-control when it comes to lust & sexual temptation. And you know what? When we do that, we won't have a problem with immodest dress anymore in our assemblies. Why? Because women follow our lead. Women dress immodestly because they know they can attract our attention. If we, corporately, as men & leaders, with great focus deliberately give our attention to modest women & withdraw our attention from immodest women, women will INHERENTLY WANT to dress to modest standards. The burden of leadership falls to the men here.

(To interrupt what I actually said this morning, I also feel the need to respond to what I already know what some of you are saying inside your heads. 'That's COMPLETELY unrealistic, Philip, to expect all men to control their eyes.' I COMPLETELY disagree. If you say that's unrealistic, then I say, 'Where's your faith?' If you say that's unrealistic, then what Gospel is it exactly that you believe in? If it's not a Gospel of transformation, than it is NOT 'Good News.' Boys do not always have to remain boys. They can grow up. And that's my 2 cents on THAT.)

"So, in that sense Rick, I agree with you. The onus is on the elders. And they need to step up."

"However, I am EXTREMELY hesitant to go where Scripture does not go & say that I will not submit ungodly elders in the church. We simply don't have a clear example to follow here; it seems to me all we have is our sanctified wisdom, judgment, and common sense.

"Peter has spoken in this letter about submission in many ways. He talks about citizens being submissive to our governments. He talks about slaves being submissive to their masters. He talks here about younger folks being submissive to elders. And he also talks about wives being submissive to husbands.

"That latter is sort of interesting. We know that, according to Ephesians 5, wives should submit to their husbands & husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church. Should wives continue to be submissive to their husbands even in a physically, verbally, and/or sexually violent relationship? I, for one, don't think so. But how far does that line even go? When you can you call it and say, "That's abusive." I'm gonna argue that THAT line is WAY, WAY out there.

"Look at Abraham & Sarah. Abraham, knowing the beauty of his wife, cowardly folded like a tent at the face of adversity. Instead of standing up for the honor of his wife, he claimed her only as his sister so as to save his own neck. Now ... was Abraham loving his wife as Christ loved the church? NOT EVEN CLOSE! Not even in the same ballpark. He abdicated his responsibility as a husband here. But did Sarah? Do we have a record of her objection? No. She continued to submit to her husband EVEN in the face of the terrible trial of sleeping with a man who was not her husband & who she didn't even know! I'm telling you, folks: THAT is courage.

"You know what makes so many marriages go awry? The husband sees that his wife isn't respecting him & submitting as much as she should. So he gets up on that cross a little less. And so the wife begins to notice that he's not doing as much for her anymore, and so she begins to respect & submit to him even less. And you can see how this spirals further & further downward.

"What saves marriages are spouses who are willing to give at times even when nothing is given in return. And you know what? That spouse who has been derelict in his-or-her responsibilities will eventually notice. Good deeds inspire more good deeds. If as husbands & wives you continue to plant good seeds despite your partner's response, you'll eventually see a bumper crop.

"What is true of those relationships is true here, too. We can either spiral downward or spiral upward. It takes patience. It means sometimes putting up with a lot of grief. But either we're investing in mutual respect, or we aren't. And that is at the crux of what Peter is saying here in the latter part of verse 5 -- "clothe yourselves with humility toward each other." Too often, us younger folks are tempted to believe the lie that we can do without older folks & their "wisdom." And I imagine that some of the older ones here are tempted similarly to think that there is nothing to be learned from younger folks & very little that we can contribute aside from being energetic. But even in the face what appears to be ungodliness by our counterpart(s), just like our example Sarah, we must courageously continue to fulfill the commission God has passed down to us."



By reading the faces of the crowd & gauging feedback after class, I sense that these words were well-received. I'm not sure I dis-armed a time-bomb. I don't think a bomb was ready to go off there in the first place. But it sure felt like it at one point.

Nevertheles, just when you think you've got a handle on what "the issues" are, God can surprise you. Ministers: you CANNOT invest too much time in learning the history of your congregation, history of "the church" in your city, area, & state, and as well the personal history of as many of your members as possible. I know that after today I am even more tuned into & interested in learning as much history as I can absorb.

Plausible Deniability Continued

In yet another example of shoe-urination named rain, Rev. Ted Haggard denies the allegations of an alleged former gay sex partner & drug dealer.

Of course he does. Bless his heart.

I find it difficult to accept & forgive the actions of a man who so blantantly insults the intelligence of his family, his church, and a nation. I mean come on people. This is worse than "I didn't inhale" or "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Good grief.

Snarky? You're DADGUMMED RIGHT I am!

Perhaps I'm offended on a deeper level, though. As a minister, it is imperative for one to protect one's integrity at all costs. Of course, no minister is perfect. But I just can't imagine what answer Mr. Haggard will have for his Lord for bringing so much public shame and disgrace upon Christ's name.

For ministers, and all Christians of influence alike, this is a lesson to us. It's a lesson I wish we wouldn't have to be re-learning so often these days, but it is nevertheless a lesson: guard your integrity at all costs. Make every effort. Protect your integrity, not just for your sake, but for the sake of the Lord & the movement of His Gospel.