Football, sports, and violence: Should we use sports as a “hope” for children?

Recently, an article on ESPN about the violence in football offered the following explanation for why football will not go away:

It [the known effects of multiple concussions, etc.] also shouldn’t give people a reason to sell their kids on the notion that it’s not a sport worth playing. It’s easy to say that when you live in the White House or you’ve benefited from a nice, upper-middle class lifestyle. It’s a different story for those kids who grow up in inner-city projects or have few options of ever improving their own lives. Ask those families what football can do for them. Their parents won’t be so quick to condemn a sport that could open doors that would ultimately be closed to them later in life.

Really? Football is some kind of hope for kids with “few options”? I think this is absurd. How many of the kids who live on this dream actually grow up to play in the NFL? If the opportunity referenced is about scholarships there may be a point to it, but I think it is really depressing that when it comes to kids with few options, one of the first things that gets brought up is sports. I’m sorry, but sports is not a salve to these issues.

Giving kids the hope that they can play in the NFL or any other major sports league is not very realistic. I also think it sells children short. The general message that is given is that if you are born into a certain situation, the only way to pick yourself up out of that hard place is to play sports. Frankly, not everyone is gifted in sports, so this message presents a message of hopelessness.

So what do I suggest? Hey, I admit I am not an expert on this at all. I am not even sure I have any alternatives to suggest, but I think that we need to get beyond offering sports as a kind of dream. It’s not realistic to tell children that they can all go and be NFL stars or NBA stars or what-have-you. We need to work with children in their situation and work to change the situation. The salve for poverty and need is not to give a false hope that only one in thousands can even have a chance to achieve.

As a Christian, I have to say that we need to be praying about those in need. We need to use our gifts to forward the causes that help care for those who are in want. We need to get beyond offering false hopes and offer the true hope of Christ. I know for some that is groan-inducing. Allow me to explain: I’m not suggesting that just going around preaching the Gospel will magically reduce poverty and lead to world peace. What I am suggesting is that the Christian worldview, in all of its robust splendor, provides a motivation to care for those in need. It also provides a framework for viewing those in need not as people to whom we need to throw a bone in the form of false hope, but persons who are fellow imagers-of-God whom we are called to aid. There are no easy answers to all the needs of our time, but at least as Christians we are called to take on those needs head-on. I hope you’ll join me.

Finally, I’ll have you know that all of this comes from an avowed NFL fan. I love football. My point is we should not use it as a substitute for real hope.

Links

Don’t forget to check out my main site which focuses on religion, philosophy, and contemporary issues.

Here’s the article that touched off this issue for me: http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2012/story/_/id/8905129/super-bowl-xlvii-football-change-survive

 

Fiction can change your life. Also, answer me this.

Fiction can change your life.  Here, I’m specifically talking about books. It’s actually very easy: you read a book and you yourself are an open book, ready to ingest what the book tells you. You may not do it uncritically, but fiction has a way of catching you unawares.

I also know that fiction can change your life because it has done so for me. It has done so at least three times in major ways. The first was the book Matilda by Roald Dahl, which I consider one of the greatest masterpieces of children’s literature. The way that it changed my life was by opening my mind to a new understanding of the power of books to bring about emotions and love. Matilda was, for me,  almost an avatar of myself in literature. Her love of books mirrored my own. Did I have special powers? No. Was I in a horrible family situation? Absolutely not, my family is and was amazing. What Matilda did for me was to make me realize that the love of books was something almost necessary to my existence. It created in me a desire for fiction that still cannot be satiated. I admit that I have read this book more than any other. I think I have read it easily over 100 times. I used to grab it and a cup of tea (just like Matilda did!) when I was young and sit in my mom’s office at school and read the whole thing.

Another  book that changed my life was C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. I read this when I first began thinking very seriously about faith and Christianity in particular. I remember seeing this book in my dad’s collection and on others’ shelves, but always thought that it was just some boring old book about religion. Who cared? I read the book and realized that religion touches on every aspect of life. Lewis, for me, awakened a love of reading books about Christianity and religion, and he opened the doors for philosophy of religion as well. This fictional book has very much shaped my life in many ways over the past several years. Were it not for this book I probably would not be writing on Christian philosophy and apologetics at my other site.

Finally, the masterful Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace, a book which continues to inspire my vision of life.  Ben Hur is my favorite movie of all time, but I had never read the book. I mean the thing was written in 1880, so I figured that it didn’t really have any relevance today. How wrong I was. The book is simply astonishing in its scope. The tumultuous action, the beauty of romance, the bitterness of revenge, and the trials of faith are all portrayed vividly by Wallace throughout. However, it wasn’t so much the story itself that inspired me, but the fact that it opened my mind up to a whole new reality: books that weren’t written during my lifetime are relevant and awesome. I know, this seems absurd to deny, but it is easy to fall into this feeling that only those things written now are good. The things written in the past are just old fashioned and out of date. Ben-Hur changed that for me. It gripped me throughout and delighted me. I now often read “old” books and find I enjoy them greatly–often more than modern works of fiction and non-fiction.

Now, answer me this: have you ever read a book that has changed your life? If so, which book was it? How did it change your life. Leave me a comment to let me know. I want to know!

Star Wars and Disney: Match made in…. ?

I’m a gigantic Star Wars nerd. I sit here with my Boba Fett watch on, my keys in my pocket with the Boba Fett key chain, typing on the computer next to my Boba Fett bobble head, my Star Wars slurpee cup (change jar), with my Darth Maul blanket to keep me warm. My bedset is Star Wars, with the Millennium Falcon and an X-Wing on it. There’s a Boba Fett figure on my bookshelf, and my Christmas Tree will be covered with Star Wars ornaments. I’ve read every post-original movies Star Wars book. I’ve read a decent amount of the graphic novels.

I love Star Wars.

It has been said for years now. There will be no more Star Wars films. It gave me a sense of finality. Yes, the books will continue, and I love them, but the movies are over. Watching the original trilogy was part of my childhood that I would not have wanted to be without. I will never forget the sense of wonder when I first saw any Star Wars movie–it was Return of the Jedi, and I was watching it on my uncle’s couch. I saw Boba Fett and thought he was so cool (still do, obviously!), and the story was just amazing to me.

Now there is the news: Disney bought Lucasfilm, there will be new Star Wars movies.  Intial reaction: shock. I actually had trouble believing it is true.

But what does it mean for my beloved franchise? Will they follow the story in the sequel books? If so, how will they get actors to sign on for an endless string of movies? And where will they start? The Thrawn Trilogy? Oh my goodness. I just realized that is a possibility. Suddenly I’m more excited for something than I’ve been in a long time. I was already.

So, Disney bought Lucasfilm? I hate it. I love it! I hate it. I LOVE IT! Oh please let good things happen.

Here’s the thing though…. what if they ruin it? What if they go with some of my favorite books and then just destroy them? I know how I would feel:

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Don’t forget, it you like my random musings here, check out my philosophical, theological, and apologetic arguments at Always Have a Reason. 

PBS’ Nature Episodes

My dear readers….

Few of you may know about my intense interested in everything. This blog is an expression of those eclectic interests.

One of the interests very dear to me is nature. I think the natural world displays a beauty and complexity which leads me towards awe and wonder at its Creator. Recently, I discovered that NPR has a great number of episodes on nature available in their entirety online: http://video.pbs.org/program/nature/

I watched the episode on there about Harpy Eagles and just loved it. I can’t stand monkeys–gross little critters if there ever were any–and these eagles eat monkeys. Yes, they’re that big. Awesome.

Another amazing episode was the one about wolverines. They’re such wild, amazing creatures. They can consume bones for nourishment and despite being small, they can take down very large prey. Wolverines climb all over mountains without even slowing down. Amazing.

Suffice to say, I have now found a great series to watch as I read. I love having them on in the background as I read philosophy/theology/history.

God’s creation is truly a majestic, wonderful canvas. I encourage you to learn more about it.

My thoughts on “2016″- Obama’s America

Recently, I watched “2016″- the conservative documentary which explores Barack Obama’s past. In it,Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative political commentator and Christian apologist, argues throughout the film that President Obama’s worldview is steeped in a variety of anti-colonialism which he got through the teachings of his father and mother. D’Souza offers this as a hypothesis to explain the political policies that President Obama has enacted and continues to pursue.

“2016″ traces the roots of Obama’s worldview back to those of his father, an entrenched anti-colonialist. Basically, anti-colonialism is the view that certain powers–the UK, the United States, and the like (largely European)–have utilized their powerful history in order to exploit those who are less powerful, and these wrongs must be righted. Thus, anti-colonialists would largely favor policies in which the wealth is ‘spread around’ and the wealthy are directly attacked simply for the fact that their wealth is intrinsically immoral. Why? Well, simply because whatever wealth they have, according to principles of anti-colonialism, has been taken wrongfully from those who no longer have it. They take the raw materials, manufacture goods, and then sell it back to the places from which they take the raw materials at exorbitant prices.

Whether or not one follows the tenets of anti-colonialism, it seems that D’Souza may have hit upon a great resource for explaining many of Obama’s policies. Consider the fact that Obama has cut off funding for oil pipelines and drilling for the United States–which would have created thousands of jobs and reduced the price of oil and our reliance upon foreign oil–while simultaneously giving money to several South American countries to proceed with their own drilling projects. Initially, his opposition to drilling in the U.S. would seem to stem from environmental concerns, but that would not explain why he supports giving money to other countries to do just that. Once D’Souza’s hypothesis is put into play–that Obama is influenced by and continues to utilize various anti-colonialist ideals–the move makes a lot more sense. The United States can be seen as giving its wealth back to the countries from which it wrongfully took it to begin with, and thereby increases the infrastructure and global power of those countries at the expense of the U.S.

D’Souza traces similar paths in many other foreign policies, such as the reduction of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Strangely, President Obama has favored reducing our own military power and our deterrent nuclear arsenal while also refusing to interfere with other countries developing their own nuclear arsenals. If one views Obama as someone working towards global peace by eliminating the threat of nuclear war (as those who gave him the Nobel Prize apparently thought), then this doesn’t make sense. However, once one points to anti-colonialism, the motivation seems much more clear. Those countries which have not achieved the global deterrent of nuclear power are encouraged (or at least not discouraged) to increase or begin their arsenal, while the U.S.’s ability to do the same is actively decreased. Such a move, of course, is radically against the doctrine of peace through strength.

Furthermore, D’Souza traces the President’s chosen path of education and the friends with which he surrounds himself, pointing out the radically liberal and often anti-colonial tendencies of many of those who are his closest advisers, friends, and his pastor. The links that are forged throughout “2016″ begin to add up into an extremely strong wealth of evidence that supports D’Souza’s hypothesis: Obama is an anti-colonialist who has been using his power as the President to undermine the United States’ global influence.

Thus, throughout the film one can see a pattern of how D’Souza’s hypothesis that President Obama is an anti-colonialist is supported by his education and upbringing, and that it is the hypothesis which best explains the seemingly contradictory policies the President has been pushing while in office.

The film does have some negative points, however. First, there is a bit of unnecessary hints that President Obama is influenced by Islam. I think that this may be quite possible, after all those who influenced Obama largely were influenced by Islam themselves. It would be hard to separate these influences. However, I know of no concrete proof or data in this regard, nor does the film present any. Instead, there are just lingering images over the name “Hussein” as part of the President’s name as well as that of his father. Second, the film generalizes a lot on the nature of anti-colonialism and its implementation. However, this latter difficulty is understandable, given the fact that it is the nature of film making that there is a limited time in which to present the topics at hand, so ideas must be simplified in order to convey them in the time available.

Third, when D’Souza turns to an analysis of what the world will look like in 2016 if Obama is re-elected, it seemed to me there was a bit of fear mongering happening. For example, one of the points was that there would be a United States of Islam. I can’t help but think two things about this: first, that sure is a whole lot for Obama to accomplish in a second term! Some have been trying to unite the Muslim world ever since its separation  and suddenly Obama is supposed to pull it off! That seemed a bit absurd. Second, it seemed to me very much like a case of using a religious affiliation to inspire fear. The United States of Islam would be the religious “other” and as such is to be greatly feared. I have written on the fact that many use the “myth of ‘religion’” to stigmatize that religious other.

Overall, “2016″ was a fascinating movie which will force viewers to evaluate the claims therein. Although D’Souza has been scoffed at by many for his rather radical hypothesis, one can see how anti-colonialism may indeed be the factor that best fits the set of data we have about President Obama. By linking Obama’s past influences with his current policy and showing how these are all explained most effectively by the hypothesis of anti-colonialism, D’Souza has presented a powerful working theory that explains how Obama’s policies have been working to undermine the prestige of the United States worldwide. Viewers will be forced to ask themselves: is this what you want for the United States by 2016?

SDG.

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Why I love the Library

I love you, oh Library, I love you I do

You bring me the books, I enjoy them too!

I find recommendations online from a friend

Reserve them, check out, renew, a Godsend!

Okay, so there’s why I’m not a poet. Anyway, I really love the Library. I find it amazing that I can see a book recommendation from a friend, search the book at my local library system, reserve it, walk in and out all in about 5 minutes, and boom! New book to read.

Here’s an example: with the political season underway, I decided to do some research on gun control. I know, it’s not a huge issue in the elections coming up, but I thought why not, I could stand to learn more! Boom, tons of books available instantly at my local library. How awesome is that?

Another example: a friend mentioned a steampunk book he really liked. I love that genre and thought, why not, I would love to read something steampunk. Local library had it. I reserved it and picked it up the next day!

So it seems to me that whether you’re using it for research or casual reading, your local library is the place to be. Do it!

Talk about something worth your tax dollars.

Support your local library, my friends!

Why NCAA Football is ridiculous

Look, I won’t hide my bias. I like the NFL a lot more than college ball. I was reminded of the reasons for this one more time this weekend.

Florida State was playing against Savannah State. I turned the game on because it was the only one I could get with a ranked team in it. I looked at the score. 28-0. Oh well, I thought, maybe Savannah State can mount a comeback. Then I realized there were 7:34 left in the FIRST QUARTER. Oh, and Savannah State hadn’t even gotten positive yardage yet. They were at -27. Wow. Seriously? It was 35-0 to close out the quarter.

This is why I think NCAA Football is often ridiculous. I’ll grant I like college ball, but these types of games are what really destroys it for me. This isn’t competitive. This is just a straight up slaughter.

Do I need to mention that going into the 2nd quarter, Florida State put their 2nd team defense on the field?

Yes, there are NFL games that can become non-competitive, but here’s the thing: in the NFL everyone has a realistic chance. They have access to relatively the same amount of money, and they’re allowed to spend about the same amount every year. Yes, some owners don’t spend all the way up to the cap, so they may not have as many superstars, but the point is they all have a chance.

In the NCAA, it seems like these ranked teams line up as many piece of junk teams as they can in order to throttle them to try to earn a higher place in the rankings. Then, they’ll put a few ranked teams on the schedule to see who actually might be better.

There’s no parity in the NCAA either. Top players go to the teams that are already good or have a system in place to be really good. Savannah State? Sorry, no luck.

So don’t get me wrong. Is there excitement in the college football season? Yes. But does it feel to me like the same level of excitement every week as the NFL? No. Why? Because there isn’t nearly as much parity. Oh well.

I don’t see any way to change that. Do you?

How did the game end? It got suspended due to weather. Florida State won by a paltry 55-0.