Archive for the ‘morality’ Category
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
If you're new here, and you're into sports and/or the Christian faith, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Reader Danny Bryant pointed us to a news story on GetReligion.org about how University of Texas Men’s Head Basketball Coach Rick Barnes has changed his cussin’ ways.
In a story originally reported on statesmen.com, Kirk Bohls tells of Rick Barnes’ recent vocabulary adjustments, which have him breaking huddles by saying things like, “let’s go out and kick butt!”
Not only has he cleaned up his speech, Barnes has cleaned up his iPod as well. In addition to sermons from his own pastor, Matt Carter, Barnes has been taking in wisdom from some more notable voices:
The coach also takes part with his wife Candy’s daily devotionals and reads from books she has given him, such as Billy Graham’s “The Holy Spirit” and Minneapolis preacher John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life.”
“The journey’s real important,” one Barnes confidante said. “Having self-control is never a bad thing.”
Barnes, who’s Longhorns host play Stanford on Friday night in Houston for a spot in the Elite Eight, has changed his diet and fitness regimen as well. He even swears by Metamucil, pushing it on reporters every chance he gets according to the article.
(Did you see what I did there with the word ’swear’? Clever, no?)
Tags: cussing, Rick Barnes
Posted in college sports, morality | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
As Awful Announcing pointed out today, ESPN’s choice of Dana Jacobson as the person to interview Tiger Woods over his poor word choices over the weekend seemed a bit “pot-kettle-black-ish” to me as well.
As you probably remember, Jacobson got into some trouble back in January when at a celebrity roast she reportedly said “Jesus” and the the F-word, but not necessarily in that order.
If you hadn’t heard about Tiger’s slip-up, he allegedly used some salty language when a cameraman snapped a photo during his back swing at Doral over the weekend. The sound of the shutter caused Woods’ ball to miss the green on the par-3 9th, and Woods eventually bogeyed the hole. The LA Times’ Rick Morrissey wrote today that Tiger said “The next time a photographer shoots a [expletive] picture, I’m going to break his [expletive] neck,”
Does Dana Jacobson have a right to interview Woods? Of course. Her past sins shouldn’t be held against her for the rest of her career. But ESPN had to know they were opening themselves up to this by choosing her to conduct the interview.
As for Woods and his cussing, I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t gotten very angry on the golf course a time or two. And when you consider that Woods was trying to do his job, well, I suppose I’d also get angry if someone was distracting me as I tried to circulate a critical TPS report. Please don’t misunderstand, I’m neither encouraging or excusing Woods for his word choices, but I won’t rake him over the coals for it either.
I can say for the record, though, that I’ve never threatened to break anyone’s neck, so yeah, Tiger should probably relax a little on the ‘threatening physical harm’ front.
(h/t: Awful Announcing)
Tags: Dana Jacobson, Tiger Woods
Posted in morality, sports | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
In the comments to last month’s post on a strange exchange at the World Series of Poker, Linda wanted to know my thoughts on whether it’s okay for Christians to play poker. I’ll share them below, but before I do, keep in mind 5 things:
- I’m not even sure poker is a sport. But they show it on the four-letter network, so why not?
- Yes, I THINK I’m right. If I thought I was wrong, I would change my opinion.
- No, I don’t KNOW I’m right.
- I try to use the Bible for my definitions of right, wrong, and sin. If you think the Bible is crap, you’ll think my opinion is crap.
- This is only my opinion, feel free to disagree.
Having said all that, here’s my stance on Poker, fleshed out in Q&A style with fictional veteran reporter Quentin Query:
QQ: Did you see U23D yet?
PFB: Yes I did, and it was unbelievable. But please, stick to the topic.
QQ: Sorry, so is it a sin for a Christian to play poker?
PFB: In every instance? No. But it might be in some cases. Just like it might be a sin for a Christian to have a beer, a cigarette, or a third cheeseburger in some instances. Unless the Bible speaks specifically against something (which in this case it doesn’t), I believe a Christian must discern based on Biblical principles and the Holy Spirit within them. Contrary to what some Christians want you to believe, there really aren’t hundreds of laws to follow in Christianity, Jesus’ life and death fulfilled the law (Matt 5:17) so we don’t have to. Instead, He gives us His Spirit and freedom, not to do whatever we want (Romans 6:1-2), but to enjoy freedom (gal 5:1) and to serve Him, not as slaves, but as friends (John 15:15).
QQ: Poker, beer, and cigarettes? Doesn’t sound like a typical small group gathering to me.
PFB: In my opinion, poker, alcohol, and cigarettes are not inherently evil in and of themselves. I find nowhere in the Bible where those specific things are called out as being evil and off-limits for followers of Jesus.
QQ: So you’re saying it’s ok for Christians to be addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, and gambling?
PFB: Did I say that? No. The Bible speaks clearly against drunkenness (Gal 5:21). It also warns Christians against being greedy (1 Tim 6:10) . It talks about not being “enslaved by anything” despite “things being lawful” (1 Cor 6:12). It also talks about physical discipline with regards to your body being important (1 Tim 4:8).
QQ: So make up your mind then, are these things okay or not?
PFB: I believe they are okay in moderation, as long as your spouse is okay with it (providing you are married, of course) and your own conscience is okay with it. (I didn’t mention the Bible here, but as I said before, if something is addressed specifically in the Bible, then that trumps everything else.) I’m not saying this is a definitive list of how to decide if something is okay for you (in case i left anything out) but it if the Bible, the people you are accountable to , and your conscience are okay with it, then I think you’re in a good place.
QQ: So let’s get back to Poker. If Poker is okay, but only in moderation, how can it be okay to make a living doing it?
PFB: Let’s take Daniel Negreanu, who is a professional poker player and a Christian. Poker is Daniel’s job. If I believed that poker was inherently wrong, then I would believe that as a Christian he needs a new job.
For example, I believe pornography is inherently evil, so i think any Christian working in the porn industry needs to find a new job. (I’m not talking about the XXX church guys, who make a living ministering to the porn industry, I’m talking about actors/directors/producers/etc.)
But since I don’t believe Poker is evil (because I don’t believe the Bible speaks against it, as I said earlier), I think one must use their brain and their conscience to decide if it’s right for them.
Compare playing poker for a living to a “normal job” like being an engineer. Neither are inherently evil, but both can be abused and can become a source for our sinfulness. If the engineer alienates his family because he puts 80 hours a week into the job to make more money, to me that is sinful. If the engineer obsesses about the job during every waking moment, and it becomes more important to him than loving people and loving God, to me that is sinful. I think those same things can be said for Poker.
Now, is it easier for greed to sneak in if you’re job is Poker? I think so. Income isn’t fixed for poker players. They win money by playing well and catching breaks. So I think poker, as a career path, might not be a wise choice for a lot of people. But I don’t think it is absolutely a sinful career path.
Daniel Negreanu is a smart guy with an innate ability to calculate odds, analyze numbers, and read other people. He couples these talents with preparation and hard work, and has been able to be successful in it. There are many who are not successful.
QQ: Yeah and when he wins, other people are losing money. Sometimes a lot of money. Isn’t that wrong?
PFB: Why would it be wrong for him to better at his job than his competitors? When you get a promotion over another guy in the office, is that wrong? When your company’s bid gets accepted over another company’s, is that wrong? When you sell something on eBay for more than you bought it for, is that wrong? Almost every transaction in every workplace involves people spending time, energy, and money for something in return. Some ventures are riskier than others.
Some will argue that poker is based mostly on luck, but it’s not. Luck plays a role, of course, but it is a game of odds. Skill absolutely comes into play. And I can make an argument that luck plays just as much of a role in every other job out there.
QQ: Well, forget about the professional for a minute. What about the guy who spends $100 a month playing in his weekly poker game?
PFB: Again, if you believe that there is nothing inherently wrong with poker, than he’s in the same boat as the golf nut who spends $100 a month on greens fees, the woman who spends $100 a month on her scrap-booking hobby, and the tech geek who spends $100 a month on the latest gadget.
Each one of these folks can be sinning if their hobbies go against the authority/accountability in their lives or their consciences. If they begin to love golf, gadgets, or poker more than they love God and other people (which, granted, isn’t easy to quantify) than they can be in sin as well.
QQ: You keep saying Poker isn’t evil. Doesn’t the Bible say that gambling is a sin?
PFB: Does it? I don’t think so. The Bible never mentions the word “gambling”. There are plenty of websites that try to tell you why gambling is a sin. But their arguments, to me, hold little water. Read here, here, and here to see if you agree (the last link makes the best arguments of the three, but I still don’t buy their arguments). They all talk about loving money, stealing money, greed, deception, addictions, and other things which I agree are wrong, but these things are not hardwired to gambling.
I play poker a few times a year for the same reason I go to the movies a few times a year. It’s fun. I don’t do it because I love money, or because I want to steal from others, or because I am addicted, or because I want to be deceitful. I do it because I know that for the $20 buy-in I am going to get a few hours of fun time hanging out with friends, playing cards. To me, it’s more of a “gamble” to spend $15 on a popcorn, soda, and ticket to a movie that might not be any good.
QQ: Yeah, but there are a lot people who do it for those wrong reasons: greed, addiction, lust for more.
PFB: Yeah, and there are a lot of people who weigh over 350 pounds because they eat for the same reason that some people play poker: greed, lust for more, addiction. Does that make eating inherently evil too? Should we all stop eating? What about the folks who are obsessive about running because they are prideful about the way they look or because they want others to think they are the best at it and worship their accomplishments? Just because they’ve made running into something spiritually unhealthy, does that mean running is evil? No. I hope you see the error in that logic.
QQ: I guess I see your point, but if so many Christians have a problem with it, shouldn’t that be a flag that it’s wrong?
PFB: Yeah, I think that’s fair. But I’m not going to accept that something is right or wrong just based on popular opinion. Everything is worth looking at closely. We should all be discerning things taught from our pulpits and spoken in the pews. Poker definitely has a stigma to it in Christian circles, but that doesn’t make it wrong.
QQ: Well, that’s all the tape we have for this interview. Do you feel like you’ve made a thoroughly convincing, impenetrable argument that it’s okay for some folks to play poker?
PFB: Not really. But I think what I’m saying makes sense, and I think it jives with the Bible. I’d be interested in other folks’ thoughts about this subject. I’m not trying to justify poker because i love to play. Like I said, I only play a few times a year and I’d give it up in a second if I felt it was wrong or if my wife asked me to. I just hate to see Christians creating their own laws and then thinking they’ve earned righteousness or favor with God because they keep them. Like one of my favorite musicians Derek Webb says:
“What’s the use of trading, a law you could never keep - For one you can, but will not get you anything.”
Opinions, thoughts, criticisms, and insults are welcomed in the comments section…
Tags: Poker
Posted in Christianity, morality | 11 Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
I watched a bit of the drama online yesterday, but honestly, I could only take about 45 minutes of it.
I did follow along on a few of the blogs while it was happening, and I caught the highlights later in the day like many of you did.
Some random thoughts from it all…
+ The congressmen who were attacking McNamee seemed way out of line to me. Congressman Burton seemed intent on shaming McNamee, not at getting at the truth. The way he called Clemens a “baseball titan” almost made me gag. Same can be said for Congressman Shays, who was basically namecalling and browbeating McNamee. I have no interest in defending McNamee, but it seemed clear that those bozos had an agenda, and that it was all about making McNamee look bad. Apparently Henry Waxman agreed with me, going so far as to apologize to McNamee at the conclusion of the hearings for it.
+ For the most part, Clemens was stumbling over his answers like a blindfolded parent walking through a messy toy room. It was hard to watch. I felt that McNamee was much more believable than Clemens, and all of the media outlets I have listened to in the past 12 hours have confirmed that I’m not alone. This morning on Mike and Mike, Bob Costas said that he already believed McNamee more than Clemens, and that for him yesterday’s events “moved the needle” away from Clemens even more. (no pun intended on the use of the word ‘needle’.)
+ Pettitte’s testimony was the star yesterday, and as was reported earlier, it was not good for Roger. Pettitte will be taking some hits over the next few days and weeks as well, however, as he is now admitting that he lied to the Mitchell Report about the extent of his HGH use. He now says he took some again in 2004, HGH that was given to him by his dad. Media folk are already using this to play the “hypocrite card” because of his faith, and there’s really nothing he can do except take his lumps, ask for forgiveness, and try to learn from this.
+ Seems to me that a lot of people told half-truths to the Mitchell Report. Both Pettitte and McNamee have now admitted under oath that they did not tell all of the truth because they were trying to protect people. McNamee hid the physical evidence he had so as not to embarrass Clemens, and Pettitte protected his dad by not mentioning the 2004 incident. Both men, however, were not comfortable lying to Congress and risking perjury, so they told all. (or did they?)
+ I liked a quote I heard this morning that was attributed to McNamee’s lawyers. When he asked them how he had done, they told him he did good because “he gave answers, not speeches”.
+ I bet the nanny thing is going to hurt Clemens as more and more info comes out. McNamee remembered the color of her bathing suit at the party (creepy much?)…if he was so sure about that, could he really be mistaken about Clemens being there? He even recalled conversations they had about the party. Why would he lie about trivial details like that? I just don’t see it.
(last one, i promise)
+ Clemens has prided himself on his work ethic and discipline in maintaining his shape and fitness. Steroids or not, it is clear that he has put in a lot of work, and it is very commendable. But if I could say one thing to him right now, it would be this: “Keeping us with these lies for the rest of your life is going to be harder than any workout program you have ever done. The thing about the truth is, it does not require much effort to maintain. That’s actually the great thing about the truth; it does the work for you. But these lies, they will take work, and they will drain you emotionally, physically, and spiritually every day of your life. Always remember, it is never too late to let them go and embrace the truth.”
Oh one more thing, I’ve never been more ready for baseball to start.
Pitchers and catchers report today! Woot!
Tags: Andy Pettitte, HGH, Roger Clemens, Steroids
Posted in MLB, morality | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
So there’s this thing going down today in Washington D.C., and if all you listen to is sports talk radio, you would think this is a huge deal…the story of the year, perhaps. Well, thankfully it’s not, despite how much the talking heads (cough*Mike & Mike*cough) have been talking about it.
You all know the story by now, so there’s no need to retell it. Bottom line is this: Despite some evidence that says otherwise, Roger Clemens is sticking with his story that he never used HGH or steroids.
The interesting angle here, in my opinion, is the position Andy Pettitte is in. One of his best friends has been accused of doing something unethical and illegal, and under oath he had a choice to make. Tell the truth and dime out his friend, or lie for the sake of his buddy. It was clear from the beginning what stance Pettitte was going to take, because similar claims were made against him in the Mitchell Report, and he admitted they were true days later. If he wasn’t going to lie to save his own skin, he wasn’t going to lie to save someone else’s.
It’s common knowledge that Pettitte is a Christian, and while that doesn’t carry a lot of weight with the media, it does make me wonder. What was Pettitte’s main motivation for telling the truth? Fear of God or fear of perjury? I’m guessing it was an equal mix of both that made the decision an easy one to make. (note that I said easy to make, not easy to follow through with). Pettitte knew he had to be truthful with Congress, even if one of his best friends asked him to lie.
I know there’s a chance that Roger is telling the truth, but personally, I don’t believe him (your mileage opinion may vary). Assuming that he is lying, and that Pettitte is sure of it, what a crappy position for Pettitte to be in. How do you think you’d handle being in Pettitte’s position? Would the threat or perjury make it an easy decision? Could you ever feel okay about lying to cover up a friend’s past transgressions if there was no real victim to the crime?
So let’s sit back and see how things play out. If the evidence shows that Clemens is telling the truth, he gets my sincere apology. If it shows Clemens is lying, well, no surprise there. And if, like I think is going to happen, there is no strong evidence either way, well then this really wasn’t such a big deal after all, was it?
Tags: Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens, Steroids
Posted in Christianity, MLB, morality | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Is poker a sport? Honestly, I don’t know. They do put it on ESPN. But then again, they put “Who’s Now” on ESPN too, and that had as much to do with sports as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have to do with winning. Sport or not, it does involve competing, and if you know anything about the game of Poker, you know that it can make for some riveting television.
If you spent any time over the past 5 years watching televised poker, then you probably know who Daniel Negreanu is. He’s the quirky Canadian player who loves to talk at the table and has a knack for reading other players better than most. One thing you might not have known is that he is a Christian.
Aaron Todd, on his blog “Gaming Guru”, interviewed Negreanu in 2006, and said of Negreanu’s conversion:
A few months after they started dating, Negreanu’s wife Lori mentioned that she was a Christian and she felt it was important for Negreanu to explore his faith. He read A Case For Christ by Lee Strobel, and when he finished, he felt like there was “no option other than believing.”
Like he does at the table, when it came to the idea of a Christian making a living by playing poker, Negreanu had a lot to say:
“There is no reference anywhere in the Bible, not one scripture that says gambling is a sin or gambling is wrong,” Negreanu says. “There are sinful things that can come out of a love for money. If you have an addiction to money and a love of money, yeah, that’s sinful, but that doesn’t have anything to do with gambling per se. You can do that if you’re a businessman or a corporate man who is just hording his money and not sharing.
“The way I look at it, it’s not how you make your money — as long as you’re not doing anything to cheat people or hurt others — it’s what you do with it. Certainly I’m going to be at a poker table with people that shouldn’t be there — where gambling has become a problem. I think gambling only becomes sinful when it becomes a problem in your life and it impedes your walk with God or with your family. From my perspective, if I’m playing with these people that are going to lose their money anyway, I can turn (bad) money into (good) money.
“It’s no different than being a stock broker. How does one believe gambling is a sin and that playing the stock market isn’t? What is the difference? You’re making an investment on something you don’t really know what is going to happen with. You do your research, like you research a poker hand. You say ‘Well, I think this has expected value, I think I will make money with this hand.’ But you don’t always, sometimes you have some bad luck or you get the wrong read. When you research a business, you say ‘Well, I think this stock is going to go up,’ and make an investment in it. Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down. Where is the difference?”
When BLUFF Magazine asked Negreanu if there were Christians who had a problem with his profession in November of 2006, he had this to say:
I think only the ignorant ones. My wife’s family are devoted conservatives to the point where she wasn’t even allowed to watch TV as a child, but they’re fine with me. They’re totally fine with what I do for a living. They understand that, you know, there is nothing in the Bible anywhere that says gambling is a sin. Nothing. I think a lot of people misunderstand gambling — OK, it’s essentially taking money from other people. Well, there isn’t a business in the world in which that doesn’t happen. When you win on the stock market, others lose. Any business deal you make, you’re going to take someone’s money. It’s what you do with that money that separates whether you’re healthy or unhealthy. If you hoard all that money for yourself, just to own a bigger home, well, I guess that might be wrong. But there’s nothing wrong with poker according to the Bible. But having said that, a lot of people misinterpret what it says and think that what I do is wrong. To those people, I just try to talk to them and explain to them. But some of them just won’t get it. But that’s OK. I’m not really a fan of conservatism anyway.
Of course, when you make your faith public, you open yourself up to criticism. When Negreanu blogged in April about the priorities in his life (1. God, 2. Family, 3. Health, 4. Poker, and 5. Stuff), some folks jumped on him, throwing scripture back in his face.
What do you think? Do you think Negreanu is wrong to make a living playing poker? If all of a sudden you realized you were an exceptional poker player, would your conscience be okay with you making a living doing it?
Show your cards in the comments…
Tags: Daniel Negreanu, gambling, Poker
Posted in Christianity, morality, sports | 11 Comments »
Friday, October 19th, 2007
The Kansas City Star is reporting that FOX has booked Kansas City Chiefs coach Herm Edwards to be on their show, “The Best Damn Sports Show Period.” Why is this news? Because up until now, Edwards has refused to go on the show because of a certain word that the show uses in its title.
Edwards said, “this show is not the ‘best’ sports show on tv”, when asked why he refused to appear, “so for me to appear on the show for ten minutes would be akin to me lying for 10 straight minutes. And I don’t lie!”
No, we joke. (I made that last paragraph up…and don’t worry, Herm doesn’t have the internet anyway.)
Obviously the word that Edwards had a problem with was ‘damn’, and the only reason he is going to appear on the show on October 30th is because FOX has agreed to change the name of the show to “The Best Darn Sports Show Period” for one day only.
“We were willing to do anything to get Herm on the show, including renaming it,” said the show’s host, Chris Rose. “Herm is such a good interview and we’ve been wanting to get him on so long. We can’t wait.”
As an interesting aside, I sort of predicted something like this in a piece I wrote for Burnside earlier this year. That story, Survey Says, featured the following phony survey Q&A:
I asked 100 Christian sports fans the following question, “When talking about the FOX Sports TV Show, The Best Damn Sports Show Period, what do you refer to the show as?”
71% said they had never heard of such a show.
19% said that they referred to the show as ‘The Best Darn Sports Show Period’, because as one respondent put it “you avoid the cuss yet it still rolls off the tongue like Goliath’s head down Mt. Sinai.”
8% of everyone asked told me I should wash my mouth out with soap.
2% said they used the actual name, “The Best Damn Sports Show Period”, although most of these folks admit to lowering their voice somewhere between the words ‘best’ and ‘sports’.
While many sports sites are asking “Would your change your show’s name to have Herm Edward’s on?”, I’m wondering the opposite. So i pose this question:
Would you as a Christian (if you are one), go on the show with it’s current name? (and if not, would their temporary name change convince you to do it?)
Also, if you’re not a Christian, what do you think of Herm’s stance on this? Noble, ridiculous, or somewhere in between?
I’m not looking for moral absolutes here, just your own infallible opinions 
(h/t: AwfulAnnouncing.com)
Tags: Best Darn Sports Show, cussing, Herm Edwards
Posted in NFL, morality | No Comments »
