Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

The Colorado Rockies baseball team has turned the clubhouse into a church. They are apparently playing biblical baseball and the Lord has helped turn around the franchise. Rockies executives make clear they believe God has had a hand in the team's improvement.

"You look at things that have happened to us this year," GM Dan O'Dowd says. "You look at some of the moves we made and didn't make. You look at some of the games we're winning. Those aren't just a coincidence. God has definitely had a hand in this."

If they end up failing, will they blame the Devil? If God is helping the Rockies, then is he actively working against their opponents?

The puritanical players are in denial about the uncomfortable atmosphere they have created for non-believers. However, at least one former player - a person of faith - says he felt pressure to conform.

"They have a great group of guys over there, but I've never been in a clubhouse where Christianity is the main purpose," says San Francisco Giants first baseman-outfielder Mark Sweeney, a veteran of seven organizations who spent 2003 and 2004 with the Rockies. "You wonder if some people are going along with it just to keep their jobs.

"Look, I pray every day," Sweeney says. "I have faith. It's always been part of my life. But I don't want something forced on me. Do they really have to check to see whether I have a Playboy in my locker?"

The fundamentalists don't seem to understand that religion is a personal matter, not a community affair. If a person wants a Playboy, why is it the business of the first baseman three lockers down? If he doesn't like nudity, why does he care if another player does?

Finally, the notion that God prefers Neo-Puritan players is patently absurd. Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf puts it best when he pointed out:

"I do believe character is very important. But only to a point. Does this mean ... Babe Ruth (a Hall of Famer and notorious carouser) could never have played there?"

Personally, I'd like to see God take care of Darfur and Iraq before He worries about the record and the sexual mores of the Colorado Rockies. To believe that God has a special interest in a baseball team is spiritual vanity and religious narcissism.

11 Comments:

Perhaps someone should ask the state's newspapers to publish reports about the team in the religion section, rather than in sports. Today's fundies aren't really about being "christians" - their faith is far too shallow to hold it personally. It's all about making public declarations to divinity that gives them a rush about being holier-than-thou and closer to "God."

The idea of personal and private prayer is repugnant to the American Taliban, because it is a political movement rather than a spiritual one. It is all about the public display, the coercion, the peer pressure, the demands. . .and yet increasingly they can only call themselves "christians" because most have no real denominational affiliation.

Superstition isn't unusual in sports - heck, my EX used to go to a college basketball or football game and have to use the restroom at the stadium before the event, going in the same door each time - otherwise he claimed the team would lose. Of course, they often DID lose, but he never stopped doing the irrational ritual.

This is where faith supercedes any sort of logic - the desire to be exempt from any personal responsibility in any situation is something "conservatives" and especially these alleged "christians" crave. . .after all, are they not sterling examples of personal selfishness?

My apologies to persons of faith - but I have great difficulty buying arguments from those who coerce others and embrace a belief not because they want to do good works, but because they have a reward waiting for them. It seems to me that a truly faithful person shouldn't have to be bribed with promises of everlasting life nor shirk responsibility for human mistakes simply by declaring "God" did it. . .
posted by Anonymous, at 5/31/2006 10:13 AM

In the United States today, religion is all about striking the right poses: gays bad/bigots good; state-sanctioned religion great/those dubious about it, monsters!

Christianity in this country no longer has anything to do with personal conduct; indeed, it may be wildly at variance with it, e.g., Tom Delay, Ralph Reed, "Rev." Lou Sheldon, sundry Catholic priests; etc., etc., ad nauseum.
posted by Anonymous, at 5/31/2006 11:05 AM

How could anyone with a modicum of intelligence think that the power and intelligence that created the universe really gives a shit if they win some lame sporting event.
Narcisism indeed!
Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at 5/31/2006 12:47 PM

For those wanting to claim to be Christians, here's what Jesus had to say about the prerequisites:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Funny. I guess he forgot to mention Playboy, baseball, and protecting marriage from the gays.

Timothy
posted by Anonymous, at 5/31/2006 1:59 PM

Whenever a religion becomes such a superficial novelty, you know it's in trouble. But what is even more frightening is the kind of God that they apparently believe in; one who will allow millions of human beings to suffer and die but will nonetheless help you get a base hit. I am not bashing "God", just their idea of who he/she/it is.
posted by Anonymous, at 5/31/2006 2:13 PM

I would add all sentient beings to the above (not just human beings).
Buddhist Boy
posted by Anonymous, at 5/31/2006 2:39 PM

The funny thing is that none of these people even realize what they are doing to what they claim is their religion. Christ himself admonished his followers to pray in private, not to make a public spectacle of how holy you want others to believe you are because you know how to mouth the words. But then, modern Christianity seems to eschew most of what Christ was supposed to have said in favor of the Wrathful God crap from the Old Testament.

Fundamentalists are especially bad because, in my experience, not a one of them seems to have actually READ the book they want everyone else to live by (the divorce rates in bible-belt states tell me that they don't expect to be made to live by the book themselves), and they don't even know the history of the book or the flagrant similarities between the Bible's stories and Creation and other myths from the same region.

But then, these are the same people who, by and large, argue that their God is floating up in the heavens manually controlling each and every aspect of the workings of the Universe, but that He/She/It still has the time and willingness to answer the prayers of people trying to accomplish one of the MOST trivial things in the cosmos. I mean, seriously, a God so arbitrary as to concern itself with the results of a game, when there are so many other real things that need to be tended to is not worthy of the worship being heaped it. The God these people worship would, in a just world, be done away with.
posted by Rob Serrano, at 6/01/2006 4:43 AM

Do not underesteemate the power of praaaayer. Ah prayed yesterdy that thar would still be a beer left in the fridge when I got hom from work. and thar was one. Glory be! Hallelooyah! Praaayer is powerful.
posted by Anonymous, at 6/01/2006 6:55 AM

When are they going to realize that the whole team don't actually need God to get out of a slump? Sure there are individual athletes who pray privately (as prescribed by the Bible), but what the Rockies are doing is a little bit too far. If one person wants a lad's mag in his locker, then that is his decision.

And the Christians claim that they were being persecuted for having a Bible in their lockers. That's one big cowpie right there.

Blood From Machines
San Diego, CA
posted by Anonymous, at 6/01/2006 12:56 PM

"But then, modern Christianity seems to eschew most of what Christ was supposed to have said in favor of the Wrathful God crap from the Old Testament."

I think a lot of fundamentalist Christians would be a lot happier if they could get rid of rid of the teachings of that annoying Jesus.

He just kept saying stuff that clearly is contrary to what good Christians believe. Stuff about treating others the way you want to be treated (surely not gays!!) and that you had to help the poor and sick (bunch of commie pinko propaganda) and that prayer in private was better than prayer in public (i mean c'mon, how else will people know you're holier than them?). And he spent all his time with sinners and social rejects - what a loser!!

That Jesus guy was soooo far off base. He said crazy stuff. They should do something about him. I dunno, maybe crucify him. That would show everyone that his ideas were certainly not worth considering.

Timothy
posted by Anonymous, at 6/02/2006 5:01 PM

Funny how this omnipotent god can't manage to answer prayers to end war, to feed the starving, or to save a dying child ... but the fundies think he'll suddenly start answering prayers to help a baseball team get a few more base hits.
posted by Anonymous, at 6/03/2006 5:30 AM