As we approach the World Cup (go Socceroos!), I have been thinking a lot about values. I know that is terribly Conservative of me, but there you go - I must be getting old.
What have old-fashioned values got to do with football? Well, a lot, as it happens. Even the very best, most famous and most highly respected football players in the world these days will dive to the ground and scream for penalties which they know are not justified. Whenever a ball goes out of the field, players on both sides raise their hands in the air and demand possession for their team, even if they know perfectly well that possession should go to the other team. In days long gone, such behaviour would have been unthinkable. Today it is expected.
It's not just football, of course - all professional sports are now the same. Indeed, athletes who do not behave in this way risk the ire of their managers and fans. Maradonna's famous "hand of God" goal is probably the most glaring example of this malaise: yet even the English fans got over their initial outrage and eventually decided that it was "a fair cop" since they would have been happy if their own players did the same thing and got away with it.
When I watch my two boys (aged 8 and 9) playing sport and games, they frequently argue about such things.
"The ball was in!" "No, it was out!"What I notice is how quickly and easily children can trick themselves into believing the lie they are telling, simply because they repeat it long enough and they really, really WANT it to be true.
"In!" "Out!"I expend a lot of time and energy trying to teach them that this is not OK. The truth is important, I teach them. Indeed, if you profess to live a Christian life, or anything like it (across every major faith on earth), then the truth is all-important:
I am the way, the truth and the light.Western civilisation is built on supposedly Christian values, but we are nowadays drifting far from what we still claim to believe.
More on this later...
PS: I am going on holidays for a week. Y'all just chat amongst yourselves...
4 comments:
Methinks the drift is an all out flash flood my friend... Sad but seemingly true. Which just proves that it takes a hell of a lot of nerve to claim to be a "christian" and then vote "Yes" on the war! "No" on the abortion! "Yes" on the death penalty! "No" on the stem cell research! "Yes" on the marriage amendment! "No" on the rights of gays! "Yes" on the ten commandments displayed everywhere. "No" on the easement of already stateside illegals restrictions! "Yes" on English as the primary language bill! "No" "Yes" "No" "Yes" "It's out!" "It's in!" It's out!" It's in!" "Out!" "In!" "Out!" "In!"... And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and...
That was poety man.
It's kin-selection, or some extension of it. Group-loyalty above justice, it's more important that the team/country win than the result be fair.
If you want to be a follower of Christ, you've got to even hate your own mother for his sake. Luke 14:26. I think that's what it means.
Time to abuse the open thread...
If you join Bloggers Against Torture, all your dreams will come true.
Gandhi, this might interest you, via:
The scariest group reading my blog may be THE RENDON GROUP. And they keep coming back, over and over again. Here's what SourceWatch writes about this organization...(read more).
I was looking at inbound links this evening and came across one originating behind the firewall of a company called NetVocates which is a "blog intelligence and advocacy service"...(read more)
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