You all probably remember Dwight Howard saying his team, the Magic, would win the NBA championship with great confidence. Why? Because he thought his personal god friend could “fix” the game for them to win. Dwight’s exact words were, “God. That’s the reason, I’m telling you.” We all know the outcome…the Lakers won and the Magic lost. And after the Magic - Celtics game 7 on May 17:
“First, I want to thank God, man, because without Him none of this would be possible. I told my guys before the game if we come out, we play 100%, play hard for 48 minutes, then God is gonna do the rest, and He did it tonight. We got a good victory, man — it’s all because of Him.”
So where was his god vs the Lakers? His god liked the Lakers better? I’m with others who are tired of the media giving time and serious consideration to the god nonsense.
Love this comment by Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com:
If God really favored Howard and the Magic, God would make it so Howard connected on more free throws.
I wish just once that a reporter would ask a person why any god would care about sporting events and favor one team or player over another.
I love what Daily Kos had to say about it:
So let me offer a suggestion to Dwight Howard and all athletes who choose to use the camera to thank God for their victories in sports: It is okay if you don’t. Honestly. I will not think any less of you as athletes or as persons for believing in a higher power, and I’m sure that most fans wouldn’t mind if you chose not to promote your belief that God helped you win that game. If you wish to express gratefulness for anything, please be grateful for the fact that you are playing a game as your full-time job. Be grateful for the fact that millions of people look up to you and admire you and follow you all year round in the hopes that your team wins. Be grateful for the fact that you are skilled enough to be working in a profession that not only pays a huge amount of money, but that only a very small handful of people in the entire country ever get to do. Be grateful for the fact that you can do sports for a living when millions of families living in poverty, who live with no roofs over their heads, often cannot even get enough food to survive.
Ramen to that.
3 comments:
Excellent post. I was thinking of writing one along these lines, but now I can just refer people to yours (which I will do).
Thanks vjack...it really irks me when these athletes think that a god is up there pulling the puppet strings.
My God isn't obligated to treat His creation with grace. Grace (whether it's common grace or saving grace) is by definition something we don't deserve. You cannot deserve as a non-being to be created and placed on this earth and have all your needs met by loving Father.
This would also solve the problem of evil and suffering. Since nothing and nobody deserves God's common grace then God is never obligated to treat His creation with grace. And since God is never obligated to treat His creation with grace then He does nothing wrong by witholding His common grace and allowing evil and suffering.What this does is it frees up God's will to act according to the way He pleases. He's not constrained by anything outside Himself or under compulsion to show grace. It's freely given by Him. He's the unique and only self-sufficient Being. He's in a different category than humans and has rights and prerogitives that I don't.
He's a good God and has good reasons for allowing the things He does even if I don't know what those reasons are. To know why God would allow something to happen I would have to be God and I'm not God. He's the Creator and I'm the creature. He has rights a prerogatives that I don't have.
Of couse He could reveal to us some of His reasons if He so chose to but I don't think I can ever know all His reasons. Logical explanations as to "why" are infinite and I'm not infinite. I can't fully comprehend the infinite. I'm finite and limited in my understanding.
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