Religion and Sports part 2

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In sports news this week, Josh Hamilton won the AL MVP. That's awesome because he is really good at baseball. This adds another chapter to his amazing story. If you don't know what I'm talking about Google it. During his press conference he started thanking God for all his accomplishments and that got me thinking where does religion fit in the world of sports? For example, we pray before football game and it doesn't really seems to have an effect, we still lose. What I've noticed that really bothers me is that once athlete's religion is known, we put them on a really high pedestal. Josh Hamilton is one example of this but I think Tim Tebow is a better one. I remember during the national title game a couple years ago where they couldn't talking about how awesome Tim Tebow was because he was good at football and he exercised demons from children in his spare time or something like that. I think it's dangerous for athletes to come out and proclaim their faith in a public way. Due to the environment that athletes are part of, they're more likely to slip up. Then when they slip up, they're going to hear about it.    

Religion and the law

If you haven't figured it out, I'm fascinated by the fact that religion causes people to do crazy things. These include kidnapping, murder, and blowing themselves up just to name a few. Naturally, I'm interested in the Elizabeth Smart case. I found this article explaining what difficulties can happen when religion and the law come together. (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/15/on-trial-faith-delusion-or-an-excuse-for-criminal-action/) There have been cases or murder in the name of the devil that have resulted in both jail time and an insanity pleas. How does the jury go about making a decision. The article discusses the problem by saying " "One man's vision is another man's delusion. One person's cult is another person's spiritual path". To me this means that there are many forms of religion out there, they can have positive or negative effects depending on the person. I think trials involving crime and religion and difficult to handle because I'm sure everyone has a different opinion of what's acceptable. I'm sure there are some people who approve of Brian David Mitchell acting on his vision from God. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

Consumerism part 2

The most interesting thing I learned about consumerism came from the story of stuff video. I learned that consumerism really was a cycle of companies telling you how much you need a product and then going out and buying that product. I guess Christmas is the climax of that cycle where people go out and spend on all the products they think they need. Then i found this article which talks about how not only are we obsessed with consumerism but, we consume huge things. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101108/us_time/08599202989900). Our houses, cars, and food portions are all so much bigger than were 20 years ago. The article mentions that even the benefits of going big such as the low prices at Walmart have flaws as well. The question I have is how do we respond to being bigger? Is it possible to change our perception of size. More importantly is this gluttony or science? Do we really need all these bigger things.  

Religion and your major

I found this interesting article which says that your major in college has an impact on your religious view and attendance. (http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/145652-do-certain-college-majors-shape-religiosity.html). To sum it up, education majors experience the greatest increase in religious influence while science majors experience the greatest decrease. The science majors make since but, I don't understand education. Maybe they need to learn how to pray when handling difficult children. The article mentions that business majors attendance increases. Obviously mine hasn't. But, my teachers have been bringing in speakers that talk about the importance of the bible and business ethics. It makes me think there's some secret I'm missing out on. I think church is something that could be very important to someone's college life as a support network. I can also see it as something that gets neglected due to time constraints. I think that religion is something that can be explored and evolved like the rest of college life. However, I think the baptist label Baylor and the size of Waco limit my exploration. I may be a Buddhist but then I'd have to go to Killeen.

Mission Trips

I was watching TV the other day and stumbled upon Locked Up Abroad. It's a great show everyone should watch it. Anyway this episode was about two missionaries who were Kidnapped by pirates near Indonesia. The husband ended up dying it was sad. Then I found this article about how missionaries are becoming better equipped to serve the areas they work in. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101020/ap_on_re/us_rel_religion_today). I may not like much about religion but, I do have respect for missionaries. These people put their faith and even life on the line for a cause. The TV show said that these Islamic pirates were interested in the missionaries teaching while in captivity. I thought that was strange but when along with it. I've always wondered how the people being served react to the teachings. If I was struggling though life would I really want to hear about how god created life?

Open House

If I've learned anything in class, it's that religion is full of misunderstanding. Since religion is preached in so many different ways, everyone interprets the bible differently. The questions brought up in class have shown me that not everyone's understanding is correct. This recent article talks about how Muslims are out to correct this misunderstandings regarding Islam by having an open house. (http://www.ocregister.com/news/mosque-271564-open-muslims.html). Being BIC members, we've attended similar events at the Hindu temple and mosque, even a synagogue. However, I've never seen a Christian church advertise such an event. I guess my question is why? Every religion has stereotypes both positive and negative. This open house gives Muslims the chance to eliminate stereotypes. I would be open to attending a Christian open house. I'm sure someone will say well you can just go to church one Sunday. To me that's intimidating, I'd rather show up with a bunch of people who would look as confused as I would.

Sports and Religion

Unless you live under a rock you know I love the Texas Rangers. If you pay any attention to sports. you know the Rangers have a playoff game tomorrow. It's an elimination game that can end in two ways. 1. Rangers win and advance in the playoffs for the first time ever or 2. Rangers lose and become the second team ever to lose a series after having a 2-0 leading. Both options are amazing achievements with opposite rewards. The game is in 27 hours yet I can't sit still and can't stop thinking about it. This really does have a religious point, I promise. People have often said sports is like a religion. I decided to investigate this further. It's true. Both sports and religion have faith, devotion, worship, ritual, dedication, sacrifice, commitment, spirit, prayer, suffering, festival, and celebration. My experience as Rangers fan involves lots of dedication, commitment, occasional prayer, and a hell of a lot suffering. I even believe on occasion that there are such things as Baseball Gods. My lack of religious upbringing has been well documented in previous posts. After putting everything together I have to ask myself the obvious question: Did I swap religion for the Texas Rangers? That's a scary thought. I'm sure God is not amused. But what am I going to do, it's hard to break a 21 year habit? I do believe everything happens for a reason. If the Rangers lose tomorrow, maybe it's a sign from God that I need to re-organize my priorities a little but. Maybe switching my religious views from the Texas Rangers to something more tangible would be a good start.

(I hope this post does not anger the Baseball Gods) :D