Archive for Culture
Check Out My Guest Post
Posted by: | CommentsI posted over at my beautiful wife’s blog today regarding the prevalence of divorce in the marriages of professional athletes. It is all I have in me today and probably tomorrow as I am due for part two.
Illegitimacy and African-American Athletes
Posted by: | CommentsI’ll have more to say concerning the NBA tomorrow, but I had to post this video. Though it is long, it is very interesting. Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports talks about the impact of illegitimacy on today’s African-American Athlete with Dr, Harry Edwards and Michael Irvin. Black or white, these issues need to be considered.
I found most of their discussion rather insightful (though I do think Michael Irvin talked a bit too much). But there was one part I thought they really missed out on. While speaking about Charles Barkley’s famous comment, “I am not a role model”, both Dr. Edwards and Michael Irvin seem to have missed the simple reality that professional athletes should watch their behavior for the same reason we should all watch our behavior. For no matter who we are, we have a responsibility to our fellow man to do good to them. To seek their welfare. To love our neighbors (young and old) as ourselves.
They never hit on this point. And we are all the poorer for it. For it is this point that puts Barkley’s statement in its place. For if it is true that we have a responsibility to one another (before God I might add), you cannot say you are not a role model or that you don’t have to watch your behavior for the good of others (old or young). If you are human that just cannot be true. I should probably write more on this in the future. Suffice it to say now that I do think they missed the point.
HT: Vitamin Z
Perspectives on the NBA
Posted by: | CommentsOver the past week or so, numerous commentaries have been written concerning the conduct or general perspective of NBA players. I assume the Carmelo Anthony and Detroit Pistons’ situations brought things to a head. But there can be no doubt that plenty of other things have occurred over the past few years to bring us to this point. Indeed, plenty of other things have occurred over the past 40 years or so to do so.
That being said, I will be linking to and commenting on a few things I have come across as of late. First, from Vitamin Z on the state of the NBA. I don’t have much to say, because I agree strongly with him, so I will just quote from his post and encourage you to read the entire thing.
Is it any wonder that a guy like LeBron James has no one to tell him the truth? Why would he listen? He doesn’t have to! He’s got more power, money, and physical talent than anyone else he knows. In the most literal sense possible, he is King James. It doesn’t help either that many of the young men in the NBA did not group up with any sort of positive male role model other than the hip-hop culture that trumpets the objectification of women, the allure of money, and the glory of the self-promoting man.
But this issue runs deeper. It runs right to my doorstep.
I don’t like to be told what to do either. I don’t like to be a team player. My heart gravitates towards selfishness and I could just as easily be drunk on power and self-worship. Do I surround myself with “yes” men? Am I listening to a higher authority or do I bow down and worship the autonomous self? The finger that points to the dysfunctional culture of professional sports and the NBA in particular needs to have it pointed back at itself.
I need to repent too.
More on Boys Wrestling Girls
Posted by: | CommentsTwo more perspectives from two wise men.
Al Mohler points out the clash of worldviews involved. An excerpt:
This is insanity masquerading as athletic competition. The controversy over the Iowa state wrestling tournament reveals the fact that this debate represents a clash of worlds and worldviews. In one world — the world that increasingly demands the total erasure of distinctions between men and women — Joel Northrup is considered to be a religious nut. In this world, it makes sense that girls wrestle against boys and that society should celebrate this new development as a milestone in the struggle to free ourselves from the limitations of all gender roles. As if to make this point impossible to miss, Bill Herkelman, Cassy’s father, said: “She’s my son. She’s always been my son.”
John Piper says it straight, with particular focus on the fathers. An excerpt.
I just watched a wrestling instructional video on line, illustrating some basic moves for the takedown and pin. These two guys are pressing and pulling on each other with unfettered and total contact. And it isn’t soft. It’s what we do not allow our sons to do to girls.
Okay, dads, here’s what you tell your son. You say, “There will be no belittling comments about her being ‘a girl.’ There will be no sexual slurs. If you get matched with her, you simply say to the judges, ‘Sir, I won’t wrestle a girl. My parents have taught me not to touch a girl that way. I think it would dishonor her. I hope you will match me with a guy. If not, I am willing to be disqualified. It’s that important.’”
Be a leader, dad. Your sons need you. The peer pressure is huge. They need manly restraints. They know this is wrong. But then they look around, and the groundswell of conformity seems irresistible. It will take a real man, a real father, to say to his son. “Not on my watch, son. We don’t fight women. I have not raised you that way.”
Reilly on Female Iowa Wrestler
Posted by: | CommentsI usually like reading Rick Reilly of ESPN, but I don’t think he is thinking as clearly as he believes in his column this past week. If you haven’t heard, fourteen-year-old wrestler Cassy Herkelman, became the first girl in the state of Iowa to win a match in its state tournament. The problem, however, is that she won after her opponent, Joel Northrup, decided to default rather than wrestle her in the first round.
Apparently Northrup’s decision was largely based on Christian convictions. He said, “As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner.” Reilly apparently believes the 16 year-old Northrup needs to be taken to task for this. Among other things, he writes,
Does any wrong-headed decision suddenly become right when defended with religious conviction? In this age, don’t we know better? If my God told me to poke the elderly with sharp sticks, would that make it morally acceptable to others?
And where does it say in the Bible not to wrestle against girls? Or compete against them? What religion forbids the two-point reversal?
I could say a lot about these few paragraphs alone, but I want to point out two primary reasons why I dislike Reilly’s column.
1) Reilly wrote this column with a great deal of arrogance.
That might sound harsh, and I certainly want to be able to make this point humbly, but if you read his column, isn’t the pride obvious? After all, Reilly writes as if his insight into this matter were obvious and timeless. He acts not as someone who has really wrestled (no pun intended) with the issue of male and female and their places in sport, but as someone who believes that this issue is so obvious that everyone should easily subscribe to his beliefs. According to Reilly, his standard and his convictions are so clear that everyone should listen up and submit to him. That shined through his every word.
And though it is my belief that he is downright wrong about this matter, it is his arrogance that bothered me more than anything else. For an issue such as this is far from an easy one to think through, and I have no doubt that well-meaning people (and even Christians) can come to differing conclusions. To write as if the entire matter were simple and obvious points not only to a lack of wisdom, but more importantly, to a lack of humility. Though come to think of it, I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise as the latter is usually seen as a prerequisite for the former.
2) It is my belief that rather than being criticized, young Joel Northrup should be encouraged for doing exactly what a young man should have done (and what other young men should have done).
I want to disagree with Reilly humbly, but I still want to strongly disagree (and the two can and should go hand-in-hand). Contrary to Reilly’s thinking, I believe Northrup’s actions, rather than dishonoring her, honored her as a young woman created in the image of God. At the very least, we know this is what his motivation was. For his father, Jamie, a minister in an independent Pentecostal faith called Believers in Grace Fellowship, is quoted as saying,
“We believe in the elevation and respect of woman, and we don’t think that wrestling a woman is the right thing to do. Body slamming and takedowns — full contact sport is not how to do that.”
Now, I know full well people will disagree with me (and him) on this matter, but you cannot deny the motivation of the Northrup’s. You can only disagree with their general worldview and Biblical understanding of manhood and womanhood, and how we best honor one another. And that disagreement points to the real reason why this story is so prominent right now (or at least when I started this post!). A story such as this makes us ask fundamental questions about manhood and womanhood. And more often than not (and most importantly), how God created us in the first place.
As I already said, I share the same conviction as the Northrup’s. I assume this is because I share the same general, and I believe, biblical, understanding of manhood and womanhood. Contrary to Reilly’s absurd comments, I don’t believe Northrup made the right decision before God because the Bible is clear about wrestling rules, but because the Bible is clear about the differences between male and female, and that an understanding of those differences will lead you to conclude that boy vs. girl wrestling is not a good idea.
I could say more about this. And maybe I will at some point in the future. But I’ll end by saying this: no matter what you conclude about this situation, be sure to recognize that your conclusion flows from your basic understanding of male and female. And if you are a Christian, the nature of the God who created male and female (for biblically, it is very obvious that the nature of God is where the discussion really starts). So if you want to talk to someone about this issue, start there. Deal with the real issue. And then humbly dialogue and disagree with one another until you either both agree or until it is tough to move on to something else. And though this post doesn’t nearly cover all I could say, it is certainly that time for me.
