Forgive us our trespasses

October 10, 2007 By

marionjonesAs interesting as celebrity scandals are, celebrity mea culpas are close behind. After Patrick Kennedy, Mel Gibson, Mark Foley and Ted Haggard ran off to rehab as part of their public repentance (and I’m sure at least two of them legitimately needed it), some began to wonder if we’d ever see an apology not tied to a substance abuse claim.

Last week’s apology from athlete Marion Jones seemed different — maybe because she was apologizing for, in part, abusing a substance. After pleading guilty to two counts of lying to federal investigators and admitting in a packed U.S. District courtroom that she took steroids, she issued a statement. Here’s how The Sydney Morning Herald reported it — with the fantastic headline “Turned out, she had feet of clay“:

Track queen Marion Jones wept as she begged for forgiveness from her family, her fans and her country after admitting to being a drug cheat.

The sprint star who swept all before her at the 2000 Sydney Olympics pleaded guilty in a US court to lying to Government investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

“I have asked Almighty God for forgiveness … because of my actions, I am retiring from the sport of track and field, a sport that I deeply love,” she said.

In a tearful statement on the steps of the federal courthouse in White Plains, New York, Jones said: “Making these false statements to federal agents was an incredibly stupid thing for me to do, and I am responsible fully for my actions. I have no one to blame but myself for what I’ve done.

In addition to noting her request for God’s forgiveness, Jones also asked for the public’s forgiveness:

I recognize that by saying that I’m deeply sorry, it might not be enough and sufficient to address the pain and the hurt that I have caused you. Therefore, I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

I was curious to see how the media treated her apology. Since it’s a sports story that means we have to look to the sports pages, where opinion mixes freely with the news. Mark Zeigler of The San Diego Union-Tribune was cynical:

Understand one thing, though: This was a plea agreement in federal court, not an admission of guilt born from a heavy conscience or some sort of cathartic personal cleansing. . . .

Jones showed up in White Plains yesterday because she had to, not because she necessarily wanted to. Sooner or later you realize the fish aren’t biting and it’s time to cut bait. Yesterday was merely the act of Jones snipping the line.

Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins had more compassion for the disgraced athlete:

You’re welcome to whatever judgment you have of Marion Jones, whatever recriminations you want to heap on her for using a steroid, and lying to the prosecutors. But anyone who sat in the U.S. District courtroom as she directed her clear, firm plea of guilty to Judge Kenneth M. Karas, and then watched her deliver that shattered emotional apology, her voice cracking on words like “deeply ashamed” and “disastrous,” in front of the cream pillars of the courthouse, was hard pressed to wish much punishment on her.

It seems to me that asking for forgiveness from God or our neighbor — or forgiving others — is something that many religious adherents do regularly. The first of Luther’s 95 Theses was “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said ‘Repent’, He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” The Lord’s Prayer — prayed by some 2 billion people worldwide — mentions a little something about repentance and forgiveness. Indeed, repentance is regularly discussed throughout Christendom.

How much more central to the life of an average Christian is this regular posture of repentance than, say, electoral politics? And yet which one gets more so-called religion coverage in America today? Sometimes it seems as if the only story angle reporters have for Christians and sin is the hypocrisy angle. It might be good for some enterprising reporter to use a public apology such as Jones’ as a hook to discuss the complex and vital topic of sin, repentance and forgiveness.

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Filed Under: Journalism, People, Politics, Sports

ESPN nails it

October 10, 2007 By

jon kitnaThis may be one too many sports-related posts for some of you (and a good start for others), but after reading ESPN The Magazine‘s profile of Detroit Lions quarterback Jon Kitna I couldn’t let it pass. Thank you to all of you who sent us this story, and I agree with the most recent submission that this is one of the most substantive attempts to look at faith and football in a very long time.

Reporter David Fleming uses Kitna’s story as a launch pad for discussing many of the religion issues that have cropped up recently in professional football, and he does so in a thorough and evenhanded manner that allows readers to draw their own conclusions:

Like many athletes who are outspoken about something as personal as faith, Kitna — with his ubiquitous cross hats and constant biblical references — is often dismissed as a loon. But his impact in Detroit is undeniable. He is part of a team prayer group on Friday afternoons and hosts a Bible study for teammates and their wives at his home on Monday nights. …

By combining two of the most fervent elements of society — faith and football — a previously anonymous journeyman quarterback has catapulted himself into the zeitgeist.

“People feel football is too trivial for God to care about, especially with so many bad things happening in the world,” says Tim Pitcher, a spokesman for Athletes in Action, which uses sports to push Christianity. “For a lot of people, the worlds shouldn’t mix.”

Yet they do, sometimes with uncomfortable results. After the Colts won the Super Bowl last February, Tony Dungy asked his team to kneel and recite the Lord’s Prayer.

While everyone complied, several players looked at each other in disbelief at the request, which forced them to interrupt their celebrations and interviews. To reporters in the room, the moment appeared awkward and forced.

Such discord isn’t limited to NFL locker rooms. Last June, New Mexico State settled out of court with four Muslim football players who had accused coach Hal Mumme of religious discrimination. Among other things, the athletes said Mumme made the team recite the Lord’s Prayer after each practice and before every game. When they objected, he labeled them “troublemakers.” “Being a coach doesn’t give someone the right to make a football team into a religious brotherhood,” says Peter Simonson, executive director of the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Read the entire story, even if you don’t enjoy sports or professional football. It says a lot about out society, what is acceptable in a professional workplace and how we deal with pressure and criticism.

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Filed Under: Evangelicals, Journalism, Religion, Sports

LAT: Faith, family & baseball

October 5, 2007 By

Vladimir GuerreroThe Major League Baseball playoffs are upon us, and Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times has done a great job of reminding us that football isn’t the only sport in which religion can be prevalent.

Vladimir Guerrero, a native of the Dominican Republic, plays right field for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He was the American League’s winner of the 2004 MVP Award, is one of the best hitters in the game today and has a rocket for an arm. Opposing pitchers think he is a “freak” for his ability to hit just about anything, including balls that hit the dirt (he also doesn’t wear batting gloves). His personal story of growing up one of nine children is as compelling as any.

In other words, there is a lot to be said about Guerrero and a lot has already been said. Baxter, to his credit, took on the religion angle in writing about Guerrero before the playoffs began and came up with gold:

Two hours before taking the field for the game that would give his team the division title, the Angels’ best hitter is sitting on the floor in a tiny room behind home plate at Angel Stadium, a Bible in his lap.

Vladimir Guerrero may fear no pitcher, but he’s a little nervous about God.

“I comfort myself with the Bible,” Guerrero says. “It’s like having my family there.”

I’ve said before that sportswriters can be some of the best religion writers out there. In addition to writing event stories (a.k.a. game stories), sportswriters follow people — and people have stories to tell. In Guerrero’s case, his religion clearly plays a huge part of his life. The story is well written and well rounded. There’s plenty of baseball in there for the sports fans to chew on, but it’s a story about a person, not a machine:

In that case, Guerrero is truly blessed on this morning because he has both: the good book and members of his extended family, namely the handful of Spanish-speaking teammates he gathers every Sunday for a short chapel service led by broadcaster Jose Mota.

Today’s reading comes from Galatians 2:20, in which Paul talks about commitment and example. So Mota asks the players to name the person whose example they’ve followed in life.

Guerrero breaks into a wide smile. It’s as if Mota has thrown a batting practice fastball right in his wheelhouse.

“My mother,” he says.

So there you have it: The man many American League pitchers dread most is, at heart, a God-fearing, Bible-toting mama’s boy.

For the non-baseball fans out there, a bit of background is appropriate. Guerrero is known to struggle around this time of the year. He is the team’s superstar and he is expected to perform come autumn. A story about his spiritual and emotional life is more than appropriate and well timed.

As the Angels take on the Boston Red Sox tonight, readers of this article are going to be more informed about the man who carries a Bible with him everywhere. Isn’t that what journalism is all about?

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Filed Under: Catholicism, Journalism, People, Religion, Sports

Religious ‘items’ in a locker

September 29, 2007 By

polamalu si coverAnother football weekend, yet another chance to venture into the arena of faith and sports.

For starters, The Washington Post had an interesting story about former Philadelphia Eagle running back Herb Lusk, who is better known for what happened after one of his touchdown runs than for the actual events of his short but sweet National Football League career. Here’s the top of the story:

The play was 48 Toss, and 30 years later, Dick Vermeil remembers it as if he called it last Sunday. Herb Lusk took a pitch from Ron Jaworski, headed around left end, and breezed unscathed 70 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown. Four steps over the goal line at Giants Stadium, the Philadelphia Eagles’ running back rewrote the playbook. Alone in the end zone, with a crowd of 48,824 looking on, he celebrated with a gesture in what has since become a watershed moment in American sports.

With little ceremony and no advance warning, Lusk kept his eyes straight, dropped to his left knee, and bowed his head in prayer. A few seconds later, he stood back up and returned to the sideline, his legacy sealed.

It was, according to the experts at NFL Films, the first end-zone prayer, and it opened up an arena of public speech and symbolic actions that remains alive and well and controversial to this day.

But the story that fascinated me, for obvious reasons, came early in the week — care of Jasan Cole at Yahoo! Sports. This was a simple Q&A about Pittsburgh strong safety Troy Polamalu, who is, perhaps, best known for the awesome mane of hair that flows out from under his Steelers helmet.

But it seems that Polamalu is also a Christian believer, and Cole not only allows this subject some space in his interview, but gets into some interesting details. Cole just keeps asking questions and printing the details of the answers.

Still, I had to smile at the reporter’s reference to Polamalu having a “carefully arranged series of religious items in his locker at Heinz Field.”

Religious items? What might those be?

See if you can fill in the gaps based on this section of the interview proper, which centers on the fact that Tuesday is on the only day in the week when Polamalu and his wife have the time to go to church.

300px FedorovskayaWhy is that? Does their church have extra long services, or what?

Polamalu: … Tuesday is also our only opportunity to go to church together, so we do that.

Cole: When and where do you go?

Polamalu: It starts at 8:30 (a.m.). … It’s the Nativity of the Theotokos monastery (in Saxonburg, Pa.).

Cole: I know you’re devoutly Christian … but exactly which denomination?

Polamalu: Greek Orthodox. Theotokos literally means the Mother of God.

Cole: How long are you in services?

Polamalu: They usually go to about 12:30.

Cole: That’s a four-hour service. Is that a normal service?

Polamalu: Pretty much, especially at a monastery.

Cole: Can you describe it?

Polamalu: What’s really neat about the Orthodox church is that it’s like walking back in time 2,000 years to the time of the Apostles, when they created these services. You walk into that and it’s really like … living it. They have maintained the truth ever since the beginning.

And so forth and so on.

So, since he is an Eastern Orthodox believer, what do you think those “items” were in his locker? Might they have been icons? You think?

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Filed Under: Godbeat, People, Radio & TV, Sports

Some stories reverse the mirror

September 27, 2007 By

Gloria Strauss 01Few stories will change a journalist’s life. Even fewer stories change a journalist’s life for the better, but that’s exactly what happened to Seattle Times sports columnist Jerry Brewer since he started writing about Gloria Strauss, the 11-year-old daughter of a local high school basketball coach, who endured a four-year fight with cancer before passing away last week.

The series, titled “A prayer for Gloria,” covers too much ground for us to review here (nine installments), but here is a recent story that movingly describes the young girl’s battle with cancer and how the family’s faith is the essential element in their lives. The story has generated unprecedented reader feedback, a multimedia slideshow, a reporter’s journal and photo packages by Steve Ringman.

A Sunday column by Times editor at large Michael R. Fancher reveals how journalists’ backgrounds and faith will shape a story and their reaction to it:

Given how personal this assignment has become, I felt I should ask Brewer and Ringman whether their own faith has affected or been affected by the story.

Brewer said his grandfather is a Baptist preacher and he grew up in a very spiritual family. “It’s still a factor in my life. It helps me feel the story. You’ve got to feel it.”

Brewer said that when the Strauss family prays, “I know the Bible passage they recite and what they mean.” But the Strauss family is Catholic. “We’re both Christians, but it’s a lot different,” he said.

Ringman said that he has not been a very spiritual person, but the story “opens an opportunity to feel God. It’s very moving and I’m surprised by that.”

gloria straussAnyone who wants to say that reporters’ personal perspectives and backgrounds do not affect the way they cover a story just needs to review this series and what Brewer has to say about how being a person comes before being a journalist. The fact is that Brewer’s religious background helped him report this series in a way that so many readers could relate to and appreciate.

The series is not without controversy. Some readers didn’t like that faith was the central message:

Brewer responds that many families use faith to help them through illness, but “very few newspapers have documented this feeling — religion, if you will — that is very strong and moving within lots of suffering families. By presenting what this family believes and focusing on it, I’m simply putting a mirror on them.”

His online journal is personal, but the stories that appear in the newspaper are told in an unbiased way with very little filtering, he wrote to one reader. “You’re left to make your own conclusions, and if you decide it’s bogus, that is perfectly fine.”

Brewer said he tries to focus on the universal elements of Gloria’s story. He added that one reader commented that what the Strauss family calls faith, that reader calls love.

Both Ringman and Brewer said they have been changed by this assignment.

“Problems seem insignificant compared to what I’ve witnessed in the Strauss family,” Ringman said. “My perspective on life really has changed, spiritually and even materially — love and our children are much more important.”

Brewer answered, “What hasn’t this story changed about my life? It’s literally changed everything. I’m a better man and a better journalist, and I realize even more so that the man comes before the journalist.

And that is exactly what reporters are supposed to do. The quality of the mirror that is put before a journalist’s subjects depends largely on the journalist. Biases and omissions can affect the way the story is played, and often that is how important aspects are lost. For Brewer and Ringman there seems to have been no difficulty in delivering this story as an unvarnished and clear picture.

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Filed Under: Catholicism, Evangelicals, Journalism, People, Religion, Sports

CBS slow on the prayer uptake

September 26, 2007 By

Cedric KillingsKudos to the Associated Press for highlighting one of the most significant issues in the Indianapolis Colts-Houston Texans game Sunday afternoon.

On a Colts kickoff, Texans defensive tackle Cedric Killings went down in a somewhat freakish injury that left him motionless on the field. The CBS announcers, filling the time gap, commented on their hopes for Killings’ recovery and on the number of Texans players holding hands. They didn’t mention that the players were on their knees, in circles, holding hands with their heads bowed.

Apparently all the announcers saw at first was a bunch of players holding hands, because it wasn’t until the very end that they mentioned that the players were likely praying for the recovery and health of Killings.

The AP comes right out and says what everyone else saw during this scary moment:

In a scene eerily reminiscent of the one played out in Buffalo two weeks earlier, the Colts and Houston found themselves unified in prayer as Texans defensive tackle Cedric Killings left the field strapped to a stretcher before resuming the game. …

As part of the Texans’ “wedge” unit, the 310-pound Killings ran up the field at full speed, going head first to open a hole. Rookie receiver Roy Hall met him at about the Texans’ 15, turning his left shoulder slightly in an effort to break through and make the tackle as players are taught. Both dropped instantly to the ground, and while Hall eventually walked away, Killings did not. …

It appears Killings and Hall will, fortunately, be all right.

Killings spent Sunday night in a Houston hospital with a neck injury and had feeling in his arms and legs. Hall walked briefly into the Colts locker room Monday wearing a bulky harness over his left shoulder, and Dungy said he expected Hall back within a few weeks.

The good news is that Killings has been able to stand in the hospital. For more good reporting, here’s the Houston Chronicle‘s Richard Justice.

At the beginning of football season I commented on Christianity Today‘s cover story on faith and football. The article pointed out the NFL’s attempt to discourage post-game prayer huddles that mixed players from both teams and Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly’s silly fuss over the huddles being offensive.

The CBS commentators’ reluctance to talk about what was happening on the field indicates the gulf that separates some of the journalists and commentators who cover this league and the players who throw their bodies out there every weekend. The religion angle in football cannot be ignored, especially in moments like we saw Sunday afternoon in Houston and in moments that unfortunately we’re going to see again and again.

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Filed Under: Journalism, Religion, Sports

Whew, that was a close(r) one!

September 24, 2007 By

JxDrwyz5It seems that some GetReligion readers are sensitive about the burning issue of whether God cares which teams win and which teams lose athletic contests and whether the prayers of the sports warriors play any role in determining the outcome of contests.

So I have been watching this issue carefully.

So on the train this morning, my jet-lagged brain spotted what I thought was an interesting piece of Godtalk in a Washington Times story by Mark Zuckerman about the final Washington Nationals game played in creaky old RFK Stadium.

For a moment, I was worried — since this was, it seemed, mentioned in a press conference — that we had a reference to public prayer inside a sports stadium the District of Columbia. Here is the top of the story:

Chad Cordero stared in for the sign from Brian Schneider. At the plate stood Jayson Werth, hoping to complete a last-ditch rally by driving in the tying runners perched on first and second bases.

The Washington Nationals led the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 with two outs in the ninth, and RFK Stadium was bouncing and swaying one last time.

Inside a crowded home dugout, Manny Acta noticed team owner Ted Lerner nervously waiting for the final out to be recorded so he could take part in postgame ceremonies. Acta started to worry.

“Ted is just standing there waiting for the game to be over,” the manager said. “And I’m like, ‘Come on, Chief. You know the guy’s 81 years old. He doesn’t need to be put through this.’”

OK, was the reference to “Chief” — with a large C — kind of a vague reference to, you know, the Big Chief upstairs who hears managers’ prayers? Was this a Latino culture thing? It should be observed that this was a request, not so much for victory, but for the team owner not to drop dead of a heart attack. That’s a good reason to pray, yes?

However, I am relieved to let readers know that this is not a church-baseball separation issue.

It appears that closer Chad Cordero’s was college nickname was “Chief” and, under Associated Press style, that would be a Big C reference. I think.

Note to the reporter: I follow the Nationals somewhat closely and I had not caught the “Chief” reference. That would have been a good thing to mention, so that sensitive politicos did not have to worry. There are tense times.

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Filed Under: Catholicism, Politics, Sports

Sportswriters don’t get religion

September 12, 2007 By

colts prayingThe National Football League’s 2008 regular season is underway, and once again the issue of religion is sliding through the cracks of the league’s public image control machine. For starters, The Indianapolis Star kicked off the 2008 season with a nice front-page feature on Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy as a run-up to that night’s season opener.

The story by Mark Montieth, who typically writes about basketball and the NBA, is local. The headline reminds us all that Dungy is still a man of faith, if we somehow forgot after his post-Super Bowl talk and his book publicity tour. The final section of the multi-section story, and the most interesting, deals with the “few complaints” about Dungy’s frequent mentions of his faith:

Religion can be a divisive subject, and any publicly expressed opinion on it is likely to draw criticism. Dungy, grandson of a Baptist minister, isn’t immune.

Some people thinks he blurs the line between church and football by crediting God for victories, as he did after the Super Bowl.

Rick Telander, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, counted 10 references to “God,” “Lord” or “Christian” in Dungy’s post-game remarks after the Super Bowl and objected to Dungy stating that he and Bears coach Lovie Smith were “Christian coaches showing you can win doing it the Lord’s way.”

“Where does the sports teaching end and the proselytizing begin?” Telander wrote.

Maybe Telander is still sore over the events earlier this year in Miami, but aren’t there better things to complain about regarding the NFL than Dungy’s frequent Jesus-is-the-center-of-my-life remarks? Maybe Dungy has something good going for him and he wants to share it? There is little evidence that league officials are concerned about Dungy’s frequent mentioning of his faith, but if they are, their priorities are out of sorts.

I’m glad Montieth mentioned this issue in the news story, because the facts show that for the most part these complaints are sour grapes.

faith in footballChristianity Today took on the subject in its most recent cover story by Mark Moring, asking whether the NFL is fumbling religion. The story focuses on the cease-and-desist order sent to an Indianapolis church regarding its Super Bowl party plans, the league’s efforts in the 1990s to discourage players from gathering midfield after games to pray and the league’s policies on not wearing anything but league gear, which resulted in a player being fined for wearing a baseball cap that had a cross on it:

When its public image is threatened, the NFL is quick to do damage control. Still, are these just isolated incidents? Or does the league have a begrudging acceptance of Christians — and Christianity? …

Generally, the NFL has no problem with players “loving God with their lives.” But talking about Jesus Christ can be trickier. Several Christian players said the league would prefer that its players act like Christians, but not necessarily say they’re Christians.

“The NFL certainly adores the manner in which Christians walk,” said Bears team chaplain Harry Swayne, who played in the league for 14 years. “But they surely wish we’d do less proselytizing, absolutely.”

Good questions are raised about the league’s policies, but the most revealing quotes come from some sports journalists who cover the league:

Post-game prayer huddles — where players from both teams gather to kneel at midfield—became popular around 1990. That’s when Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly penned a blistering commentary, saying that the prayer huddles were offensive to people of other faiths and that he didn’t want players to “shove their religion down my throat.”

Peter King, a Sports Illustrated senior writer who has covered the league for nearly two decades, said he sometimes tires of players bringing up their faith after a game. “To be honest with you, people like me just totally ignore that, because we’re not writing about religion,” King said. “We’re not writing about somebody’s Christianity. Once the questions veer off into game-oriented things, that’s when I start taking notes.”

King isn’t down on Christians. Some of his favorite players — including Dilfer and Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner — are believers. King lauds them as men of integrity, and added that Smith and Dungy “are among the most moral men you will ever find.”

What does that tell us about “people like” Peter King? I hope most journalists don’t “just totally ignore” things that coaches bring up after a football game. Does King speak for other sports journalists when he says this? I hope not.

I am not convinced that the league is anything but what it says it is on religious issues. As the NFL’s spokesman says, the league has no policies restricting players or coaches from expressing their faith within the uniform policies and onfield conduct rules. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a story here.

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Filed Under: Evangelicals, Journalism, Social Issues, Sports