Rockies’ faith is a hot topic
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With the Colorado Rockies one of only four teams left in the MLB playoffs, and the media looking for storylines in a completely unglamorous NLCS, you can bet that the Rockies’ organization is going to be getting some attention for the way they run their ball club.
It’s already started actually. Will at Deadspin has a new post up today referencing this article from the UK rag, The Independent. And of course, there’s the article from USA Today in June of 2006 when shed the first national light on the values and beliefs that permeate the Rockies organization from top to bottom.
According to the articles, the Rockies’ CEO, General Manager, President, Manager, and many players all profess to be Christians. They have clubhouse rules that are a bit more strict than other clubs: No nudie mags, no obscenity-drenched music, and no sacrificing of small woodland creatures to Beelzebub in this locker room.
How is their faith coming across in interviews and articles? I’ve heard worse, that’s for sure. But there were a few things bothered me. For instance, CEO Charlie Monfort said:
“I don’t want to offend anyone, but I think character-wise we’re stronger than anyone in baseball. Christians, and what they’ve endured, are some of the strongest people in baseball. I believe God sends signs, and we’re seeing those.”
When you have to qualify a statement with “I don’t want to offend anyone” it usually means you’re about to offend someone. The notion that Christians as a people group have endured things that make the Rockies the strongest team in baseball? I’m not really sure what that means, but I’m guessing African-Americans might take umbridge with that statement. What exactly have they endured?
And consider this: even before the Rockies’ finished the season with that amazing run 14 wins in 15 games, their GM Dan O’ Dowd said,
“You look at some of the games we’re winning. Those aren’t just a coincidence. God has definitely had a hand in this.”
I always cringe a bit when i hear team’s suggest that God has had a hand in their winning of games. While I believe God is capable of intervening, and while I believe He does have a hand in our lives more than we probably know, to say that He was helping your team win and the other lose reeks of piety and arrogance to me. I know the statements are meant to give God glory for something they feel he is doing, but they almost never come across as intended. To me, it’s always better to thank God for your talent and opportunity to play and to leave it at that, but what do i know?
That said, I have never agreed with the logic that The Independent uses in a tongue-in-cheek manor to suggest that God wouldn’t intervene in a baseball game because there are more important things to deal with:
“Anyone who fancies the Almighty has better things to do than determine the outcome of baseball games might want to consider just what the Rockies have achieved.”
The notion that God has “better things to do” suggests that he is capable of doing a limited number of things at one time. While I don’t claim to know more about God than anyone else, I don’t think God is up there saying, “Gee, I’d love to help the Christian Rockies win that game tonight but it’s #4,767,809 on my list of important things to do and I’m stuck here on #3 and I keep wasting time reading my email.”
I don’t think God acts in situations based on how important we think they are, and I don’t think He acts in situations based on how tied up He is with other things. I think He does what He does, and we can’t even pretend to understand the how’s and why’s.
It will be interesting to see how much play the faith of the Rockies’ gets over the next week or two. We’ll be sure to pass along everything we hear.
(h/t: Deadspin.com)
Tags: Colorado Rockies, God, MLB
