2010: The Greatest Year In Sports

Here's a look back at why I loved this year:

The Saints win the Super Bowl

Five years after Hurricane Katrina where the Saints home field was the emblem of tragedy and pervasive issues of race and class, New Orleans became Super Bowl Champions! The win was such a huge symbol of hope and justice.

The 2010 Winter Olympics

I love watching the Olympic Games and every year the parade of nations makes me cry tears of joy. It is a symbol of hope for peace in the world and the reality of the nations who walk in together in John's vision in Revelation. Although I hate the snow and cold, the winter Games has always been my favorite. This year Bode Miller redeemed himself with a few medals (after years of trying), Apolo Ohno surpassed Bonnie Blair for the most American winter medals (and he's insanely fun to watch when it comes to short track), and Evan Lysacek brought home the first gold in quite some time for the US (and against Russian Plushenko who had the awful gyrating hips heard round the world). And even though I have never enjoyed hockey before, the USA-Canada match was quite fun. Soooo much to say about those games :)

DUKE.

Let's see...Cameron celebrates its 70th Anniversary, Countdown to Craziness, Got front row seats for Duke-Carolina in Cameron, Duke beat (whooped) UNC in Cameron for the first time since 2005, Duke is the ACC Regular Season Champs, Conference Tournament Champs, Regional Champs and NATIONAL CHAMPS!! A grrrrreat year to be a Duke fan!

Isner-Mahut

Greensboro native John Isner plays the longest tennis match in recorded history. He played 183 games over three days to beat Mahut. And it took place in Wimbledon...even better!

World Cup South Africa

I have never been a soccer fan, but this year while working at Church I learned the art of watching this sport which requires careful, meticulous watching. It was fantastic to see that the tournament was held on African soil given how much the continent LOVES futbol. And yes, I even managed to watch it in Espanol! And the Team USA win against Algeria was fantastic! It is official, the US has soccer mania!

Honorable Mentions: USA takes the FIBA World Championship under Coach K; Coach K surpasses Dean Smith for most number of wins--880--and I was in attendance with the fam :)

On Envy

The sin of envy may not so much be an issue of morality than one of piety. Although it is true that envy is the breeding ground for ruined relationships, desires, expectations, and a sense of gratitude, it also prevents us from fully receiving the lives and circumstances God has given to us as "gift" and which hold the promise of beautiful redemption. If we do not live into the idiosyncrasies of our lives, we cannot enjoy the unimaginable possibilities of their redemption. Envy rejects the reality of our lives for an ideal which we often mask as a redemptive promise, forcing us to miss out on the more authentic and powerful redemption that Jesus brings.

The Youth Vote

As I was sitting in line to vote today, I noticed that there weren't many folks braving the cold with me who were in my age bracket: the youth vote. Apparently we came out full force for Barack Obama back in 2008, but what's happening this year? The media usually says that we are apathetic, but this year they are also pushing the overall prediction that Republicans are more energized this year and the electorate (not just the election) will reflect that.

However, I have a different assessment. I should be a classic shoe-in for voting. I'm passionate, always willing to give my opinion, I enjoy researching candidates and I'm a former social studies teacher. In general, I'm one of those people who just cares. But I remember the shame of not voting in the 2006 midterm election when I found a candidate I really liked and even though he won, I couldn't say I elected him. I wanted to vote, but I didn't. What is the disconnect? For me, the problem wasn't the typical type of apathy--it was location disillusionment/confusion. I didn't want to vote because I didn't feel connected to the place where I found myself.

In 2004, I voted for the first time in my hometown because I felt more connected to that place. I knew the candidates and felt that I had a stake in what happened there. Not everyone can drive 2.5 hours to go home to vote on election day. In 2006, I didn't want to place a vote in an area that I would leave in a few months due to college graduation. Why should I make decisions for a place I will leave? Why should my vote based on temporary residency cancel out a committed, lifelong resident? In 2008, I felt more stable and connected to the local area I was in, so I felt comfortable voting. A Presidential election year feels more pressing, but I'm often tempted to vote for only national-level politicians because it has a broader connection with me. Now in 2010, I feel unstable again because I have no idea where I will go next, but I voted this year because my Christian Ethics class made me deal with giving to Caesar what is Caesars--in this case, my vote. So I will vote because of a theological conviction, but the location paralysis still gets me.

I think that this issue of location and sense of place is definitely a contributing factor to why young people don't vote and it is often ignored. We are a homeless, unstable people. We want to be involved, want to let our thoughts be heard, but we are insecure about where we belong in local communities. If someone can figure out this dilemma, I think they may have just tapped into the youth vote.

On Culture Wars Part 2

A few thoughts:

According to a Christian Century blog post entitled "Fog of the Culture War" by Rodney Clapp, author of the uber-fabulous "Families at the Crossroads" (which I just finished), we need to recognize that the culture wars represent a confusing time. Clapp highlights this by citing Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address where he describes the calamity of the soon-to-end Civil War.

"Both [North and South] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The almighty has His own purposes."

The wisdom of this speech recognizes that when Christians are divided over an issue, that we often think that one side wins, and the other loses. This is often the case, but to a certain extent we both lose. There is still a great sense of loss. There is nothing that feels worse than fighting each other. Sometimes it feels good to get in the last word, the last laught, to humiliate what you disagree with, to feel a sense of self-righteousness, but when it comes at the cost of your brother or alienating another human being, it feels terrible.

The other piece of wisdom that I really appreciate from this piece is that the culture war really is a fog. It is overwhelming. It is difficult to see issues clearly. We may not get to see the truth until a century or so from now. And as much as I don't like that, I'm still called to be present in this place "now" and that I'm called to be a Christian "now." This doesn't meant shrink away from the world, but it does mean being active in the Church.

And secondly, another really interesting body of work to come out is by James Davidson Hunter, who was the Sociologist who invented the term "culture wars" over 20 years ago. In his new book entitled "To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World" (Oxford: 2010), Hunter gives an overview of how Christians see Culture and Cultural Change. See short summaries of his chapters here. Here is a great article about if from Christianity Today. He identifies that the Christian Left often mirrors the politicized actions of the Christian Right but over a different set of values. As much as I sympathize with the Christian Left, I can't disagree with Hunter's argument.

Hunter also gives an interesting critique on folks like John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas in their affirmation of what Hunter calls "neo-anabaptist" models because eventhough it rejects Constantinianism and attempts to get back to a "mythic" "authentic" New Testament model of Christianity that such an argument is built on what it rejects. I need to learn more on this.

What Hunter offers instead is a "faithful presence." I'm not sure if I am interpreting this correctly, but I think this gets to the bottom of what my heart yearns for. Faithful presence does not mean "don't get involved," but it means to act Christian in whatever situation you are in. I think what speaks powerfully to me is that it means to act with compassion and grace toward oppressors in addition to the oppressed. It would require me to think compassionately about Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter as much as I think with compassion toward the poor and the oppressed. And I guess it begs the question of whether you can actually be simultaneously compassionate toward all.

Another quick note of something I appreciate tremendously about Hunter is that he expands the definitions of culture. I both enjoyed some things and found myself really frustrated by Andy Crouch's "Culture Making," but I think Hunter spells out for me why I felt so ambivalent. Crouch defined culture primarily as an artifact. He kept talking about what we could learn from an artifact (his example was an omelete) to tell us about culture. Given that I had never had an omelete until I got to college, I felt like crying foul because there was never a question of what made the omelete "normal" for America. I'm American, my family has been here since 1619 and none of my family members had ever had an omelete. Where we are from, you scramble your eggs. I know that he was just trying to give an general yet interesting example, but to me it revealed the limitations of his definition of culture and therefore his advocacy of it. There are systemic issues involved in culture. And this has huge implications for issues of race, ethnicity and even regionalism. Sometimes culture is what we assume. In the words of Hunter, "culture is also infrastructure" (Christianity Today Article, pg. 2).

I think the other problem I had with the culture as artifact argument is that it doesn't really allow folks to question negative aspects of culture. For instance, the goodness of the convenience and amazing power of the iphone does not get into ethical questions about American consumerism, accessibility of such a fantastic product to all people rather than just rich people, labor issues, the company's business practices and political associations. All of those things are assumed. It is assumed because a strong part of American culture is capitalism. The culture is like water to a fish--you don't realize the things that are inherent and therefore most desriptive about a culture until you get into a different environment.

On the Culture Wars

Not a day goes by, especially in the summer, that I do not get overwhelmed and distracted by the culture wars.

Overwhelmed for a couple of reasons: 1) The "hot button" issues of the culture wars involve a collision of really intimate, almost private issues and a public component about various rights. Take abortion and birth control. This is a very personal issue about sexuality, pregnancy and creating life. It also involves issues of rights of mothers, a history of male coersion and a future of absentee dad-ism, issues of poverty and the questions about where life begins and how to respond to it. Perhaps you don't like my spelling out of the issues I see at play over the abortion/birth control debate, but regardless what makes this issues so overwhelming is that there are very real private and public dimensions to them.

2) There is a feeling that there is such a "divide" in the world over these cultural issues that one has to figure out what they believe. Given the often cyclical nature of various values, meaning that taking a stance on one issue often makes one have to make a statement on a seemingly non-related issue and things get messy. For instance, there is a slippery slope over the issue of "pro-life" when it comes to things such as the death penalty. So to recap that one, having to make up your mind and having to consider and sort through other issues is simply overwhelming.

3) Communication (and community) becomes incredibly hard. It is so difficult to have conversations with people who have a set of beliefs that is so different from your own. Very often we want to "win" the argument and we never really get a chance to hear the real and genuine concerns that another person may have. Therefore, feeling like you can never be heard and to also never really hear from and connect with another human is exhausting.

And finally, the culture wars are overwhelming and incredibly distracting for the Church. It divides us into so many factions that we simply stop being Christians to one another and to others.

I do not think that I will be able to really get my mind around what I think and how I will react about all of the different culture war battles and the latest skirmishes and flare-ups, but I did find some interesting food for thought today which I will share in my next post.

On the Lebron James Hoopla

Now I’m a college basketball gal. I don’t do the NBA. But I feel that I can’t help but comment on the recent hype, celebration and griping over Lebron James’ move from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat. And I must say that since I graduated in high school in 2003 (also James’ graduation and draft year), that the NBA has come to have a more direct impact on college basketball. Given that many of my fonder memories growing up centered around ACC Basketball and my Dad being a high school basketball Coach, I find that the ways of the NBA influence have therefore become personal.

So many folks have said, “Oh yes, if Lebron wanted to win a championship, his move to Miami is the right move.” And perhaps this is true. But I want to push back against that logic for a moment. Yes, Lebron is a great basketball player (so I’ve heard). And yes, he’s been able to do a TON of great things—first round draft pick, shoulders a lot of stats, won an Olympic Gold medal (under Coach K mind you). And yes, an NBA championship seems to elude him. And I see nothing wrong in continuing to fight for one, but do we have a “right” to win everything? What’s so horrible about that? It seems to me that life isn’t always like that—where you get to win everything.

The other part of this I want to push back against is that the pursuit of winning means “creating” an undefeatable team. I applaud Lebron for realizing that he might not be able to win on his own. I applaud him for giving the million-dollar check for his “big announcement” to the Boys and Girls Club and taking nothing for himself. But I don’t know if using artificial means to creating a team is what makes a “team” championship so glorious. And I know some of you may want to gag or think I’m being Duke-obsessed, but take a look at how the 2010 Duke team managed to win a championship without real “stars,” but individuals who learned their positions and how to work together. When other people ran off to pursue greatness elsewhere (ie. Gerald Henderson) and the natural loss of seasoned players to graduation, this team became a winning team on their own. Perhaps the only “it-factor” they had was Coach K. I hope that the “new” Miami Heat takes notice of how quickly the star-packed Kentucky team went down during the NCAA Tournament this season.

And as a woman, youth volunteer, former school teacher, and as a mom-type, I just want to say that the NBA folks need to remember that our kids are watching you. While you are living out your dreams, the next generation calls you their superheroes and they say that they want to grow up to be just like you. I hope that you take notice that you help shape our society and have more influence to shape it than others do—in large part because you have a connection to important people, power and financial resources and have a connection to real American people and their hardships. Secondly on this note, be mindful of how your own desires and decisions effect the rest of society. There is the issue of money, consumerism, athletics-as-a-ticket-out-of-the-ghetto mentalities, but it also means that when our kid says, “But Mom I just want be recruited by a college or a professional team…can we please move halfway across the country so I can be on a winning or noticeable team so I can have that opportunity,” that this issue eventually becomes a family issue, a family sacrifice. The pursuit of winning will somehow find its way into our living rooms.

Therefore I urge you to consider the rest of us. Know that the means do not always justify the ends. And please, let us all find completeness in something more than just “winning.”

On Christian Dating

When we hear the words “Christian” Dating, we usually think of the type of dating where it is already agreed upon by a community about what you will and will not do. Of course, the focus usually seemed to be ordered towards “Christian” Marriage. There are many forms of Christian dating, some designed to be more ordered toward marriage (courtship) and some which are oriented toward trying on a variety of people and learning more deeply about other people, relationships and the self while on the way to one day finding a marriage partner. I think what all of these varieties of Christian dating have in common is that sex belongs in marriage—therefore what makes this type of dating different than most others is that both partners will not engage in sexual intercourse even though they both may desire that.

I have definitely seen the range of beliefs on this issue. Some Christians think that any physical activity from kissing, groping and non-penetrative sex is permissible. On the other hand, some believe that one should even wait to have their first kiss in from of the congregation when they get married. Now I do not condone some of what is deemed permissible in that first group.

Although I do agree that Christian dating should be ordered in a way that respects that sex is made for marriage, but I do not think that sex alone should be the consideration of what makes “Christian dating” different from “regular dating.” And if I haven’t made it clear, I think that there should be a definite different. I think what is assumed in Christian dating is that you will date someone else who is a follower of Christ, but I don’t think we fully let those implications of “Christian” impact how we date outside of the sex issue. I’m not necessarily going to prescribe what to do, but I think there are some questions we should be asking ourselves.

What does it look like to be Christian and enter into a relationship with someone else? How do we treat someone when we aren’t interested? How do we look beyond ourselves?

What does it look like once we are in the relationship? How does being Christian affect that? Do we learn patience? Do we learn forgiveness? Do we learn the value of other people? Do we get to build up another person? What do we do when we realize our own selfishness? How do we confront another’s selfishness?

And finally, the one that I don’t think we much give any attention to, but how do we act and be Christians when we are breaking up? How do we treat one another? How do we reintegrate back into Christian community? How do we orient ourselves to understanding that although the privilege of American Christianity is perhaps finding another Church or not having to run into an ex, or having the “right” to ignore the other, how do we live into the reality of that we are both members of the Kingdom of God? I think sometimes we brush off this reality by saying, “Oh, we won’t notice the other person while in heaven, so it is ok.” But what does this mean for bodily resurrection? What does this mean for the Day of Judgment?

Ultimately I think as Christians that we are supposed to look different. I think that people should feel like stopping in their tracks and saying, “Dude, what’s going on over there?” Why do they love each other like that?