Ghost in the Beckham story?

July 14, 2007 By

david beckhamAmid the mania earlier this week surrounding the move of the David Beckham family from Europes to the United States is a quiet religion ghost that reporters ought to take a look at.

We sympathize with anyone trying to write about Philip Anschutz, but the back story surrounding the move of the world’s most famous soccer player (footballer for the non-American readers) needs a look as this story will likely be in American media until the Beckham family moves on to other places.

I am not optimistic that this will happen anytime soon. Many of the articles hardly mention at all that David Beckham is a soccer player. They hardly need to of course, but let’s not forget this is a sports story involving players other than Beckham and a team owner who has a vested interest in seeing a return on his investment. Right now the media coverage is focused more on the glitz and the glamour more appropriate for supermarket tabloids. Here is a USA Today cover story:

David Beckham has conquered the rest of the world as the most recognized soccer player around. Now, he’s ready to take on America.

Wearing a black suit with white shirt and black tie, Beckham shared his thoughts a day after agreeing to a five-year contract with the L.A. Galaxy that could be worth $250 million.

“I’m coming there to make a difference. I’m coming there to play football,” Beckham said Friday via satellite from Madrid. “I’m not saying me coming to the States is going to make soccer the biggest sport in America. … But I think soccer has a huge, huge potential. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe in this project. This could create something that we’ve all never seen before.”

Those who orchestrated the deal are convinced Beckham not only will raise soccer’s profile in America but help the Galaxy win.

Hey, look at that. The article — about a professional athlete — actually raised the idea that Beckham is being shipped to the U.S. to help a team perform better! What a novel idea.

Philip AnschutzBut back to Anschutz. He is a businessman with an estimated worth of about $7.8 billion. He has stakes in three soccer teams, including the Los Angeles Galaxy, for which Beckham will play. He is a donor to and supporter of the Bush administration and has helped support many religious and right-wing issues. And it’s his Anschutz Entertainment Group that is funding Beckham’s big salary estimated at $250 million.

Here is the International Herald Tribune‘s Rob Hughes on what little was written about Anschutz’s involvement:

In that respect, the statement that soccer intrigues the rest of the world more than it does the United States, Beckham and Anschutz are almost right. They share the view that his presence, and let us be honest his groomed PR, will permanently take American manhood past the point of resistance to soccer.

Where they are wrong is to suggest that the United States — or as Beckham put it Thursday, the whole of North America — is the last big frontier unconquered by soccer fever.

Even FIFA, the governing body of the game worldwide, acknowledges that India, with its billion population, has never yet been lured to share the infatuation.

After Hollywood, perhaps Bollywood for the iconic Mr. Beckham?

Meanwhile, he is expected to see out his contract, and play out his role as a backup player to the Madrid players eclipsing his waning star in the Bernabeu Stadium. His backers, Gillette, Pepsi, Adidas and now Anschutz, will help him easily past the career total of half a billion dollars.

If the dust ever settles around the Beckhams’ risque-styled PR move to the U.S., I am hoping someone gets an interview with Anschutz to explore his thoughts behind the events. And while Anschutz is unlikely to grant a face-to-face interview, I hope reporters will take the efforts to write about it anyway. There’s a story to be told about the man who wants to bring more family-friendly movies to American cineplexes.

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Filed Under: Evangelicals, Journalism, Sports

The Washington Nationals, still praying

July 6, 2007 By

GOD AND BASEBALLYou all remember that spat involving the Washington Nationals and religion in the fall of 2005 when the team’s chapel leader seemed to agree that Jewish people are headed to hell because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as their savior? The controversy ignited after comments from team Chaplain Jon Moeller were published in a rather excellent Washington Post feature on the Bible in baseball.

But let’s put that aside the controversy for a moment. The point of the piece was that baseball players are starting to embrace religion, and some were discussing whether praying to God would benefit players’ performance and even the team’s chances of winning games:

Once derided as a sign of weakness by managers and trainers, Christian prayers are now accepted and even encouraged before baseball games. In lockers, you’ll find Bibles next to the Ambien and Skoal. Participants say the stress to perform, the uncertainty of injuries, and the lack of control over being traded or cut are lightened by their bond with God.

“It’s about guys needing Christ,” Moeller said. “It could be the security guard, or it could be [first baseman] Nick Johnson. RFK becomes a church on Sundays.”

Even the team doctor, Bruce Thomas, supports weekend prayers and Wednesday Bible study. “If a player has total wellness — their mind, body and their spiritual side — they perform better,” he said.

Now keep those thoughts in mind and check out the Post‘s Nationals Report in Tuesday’s edition:

Reliever Jesus Colome remained in a hospital yesterday with an infection on his right buttock, though GM Jim Bowden said he would get out today. The Nationals don’t know when Colome, 4-0 with a 2.76 ERA in 40 appearances, will be able to pitch. “It’s a serious situation,” Bowden said. “We pray for his buttocks and his family.”

Bowden, the Cincinnati Reds’ general manager from 1992 to 2003, has been with the club since November 2004. The Post‘s profile quotes him as asking the chaplain to pray and saying he wants to “build a real chapel, ‘with stained glass.’”

I mention this because it’s good background to have in understanding what could be taken as a flippant comment from a baseball GM to a reporter. But as best I can tell, Bowden is genuinely planning to pray for Colome’s buttocks. Maybe it’s time to do an update on the “praying Nationals” story?

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Filed Under: Humor, Journalism, Religion, Sports

Jobu doesn’t help with curve balls either

June 28, 2007 By

santeriaAfter I posted Tim Townsend’s story on Christian Family Day at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium, a few readers sent along an article on baseball and Santeria. Los Angeles Times sportswriter Kevin Baxter penned a thorough and engaging account of the rise of Santeria practice among Major League players from Latin America:

On a shelf in the office of Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen, mixed in among the family photos, the Roberto Clemente bobblehead and the Napoleon Dynamite figurine, are four small but intimidating religious icons.

“If you see my saints, you’ll be like ‘Golly, they’re ugly,’” Guillen had said before inviting a visitor to come in. “They’ve got blood. They’ve got feathers. You go to the Catholic church, the [saints] have got real nice clothes. My religion, you see a lot of different things you never see.”

Guillen’s religion is Santeria, a largely misunderstood Afro-Cuba spiritual tradition that incorporates the worship of orisha — multidimensional beings who represent the forces of nature — with beliefs of the Yoruba and Bantu people of Africa and elements of Roman Catholicism. And Guillen, born in Venezuela, is one of a growing number of Latin American players, managers and coaches who are followers of the faith.

The article is fantastic, but I had one problem with it. Baxter repeatedly says the religion is misunderstood without substantiating that it’s misunderstood. He references a scene from the movie Major League where the religion is joked about (I riffed on this for the post’s headline) and says that “Judeo-Christian society” dismisses the religion as a blood-letting cult. But no one who has a problem with Santeria is actually quoted in the article — either anti-animal cruelty advocates or religious opponents. It is at the very least theoretically possible that people oppose, joke about or dismiss Santeria while fully cognizant of what it teaches. I’m not sure it’s up to the reporter to be the arbiter of what’s understood and what’s misunderstood. Rather, he should report about it and let the reader decide. Including quotes from practitioners who feel it is misunderstood is perfectly acceptable, but crossing the editorial line to make a judgment about same is questionable.

Other than that, however, the piece is remarkably thorough and smart, particularly considering its writer’s expertise is sports. Baxter explains how Santeria practitioners sacrifice vegetables as well as animals and have complex relationships with chosen saints. He also talks to athletes who have felt their religious views were under attack:

“When you talk about that religion in the States, people think you’re a monster,” said Guillen, whose children were baptized in the Catholic faith and have become, like their father, babalaos. “Sometimes you have to be careful what you say about religion and when and how. Because in this country there’s so many different ideas, people get offended so easy.

“People call me a criminal because we do stuff with blood and animals. I don’t blame these people. They believe what they believe and I believe what I believe. Have I ever killed an animal in the States to do my religion? No. I did in my country.”

Guillen said there’s another popular misconception with Santeria — indeed, with many religions — and that’s the belief that how you worship will determine how you play.

“Some people think because [their] religion works they’re going to get a hit or pitch better,” he said “That’s no reason to do it. I think the main reason to have a religion is faith and belief. No matter what you believe and what you have faith in, you have to make it work.

Not that I don’t find baseball to be the game with the most similarities to religion, but it’s still shocking to see a sportswriter get religion better than almost all the other reporters out there. Good work, Baxter.

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Filed Under: People, Sports, World Religions

Turks get American religion — our football

June 5, 2007 By

wall1Anyone who knows anything about life in the USA knows that one of our strongest forms of civic religion is Christian football.

As opposed to soccer, which is the Islamic form of football.

What in the world am I talking about?

Well, I arrived in Istanbul yesterday (Monday here) and one of the first things to pop into my email was an interesting first-person piece by writer Mark St. Amant in The New York Times titled “Cheering Section — In Turkey, It’s First Down and Miles to Go.” The faith and football connection shows up pretty quickly.

In reality, however, the piece is about globalization and our small, small world of sports and mass media. However, almost anything in Turkey these days raises questions about people relating to the great power in the West and that, sooner or later, brings in religion. Thus, we learn that “American football” is an “infidel sport” and since the late 1980s has become, with some help from eBay, a competitor to, well, you’ll see.

The how of Turkish football was clear, but I was more interested in the why. After all, these guys had no football frame of reference growing up. No Pop Warner to teach the basics. No high school programs. And certainly no Turkish professionals whom they could dream of being when they grew up. (Gatorade never quite got around to that “Be Like Mehmet” ad campaign.) I got stock answers at first: the camaraderie; going on road trips to games; the hitting; knowing that 40 guys have your back at all times.

But there had to be more to it than testosterone-fueled friendship. They were at an age (18 to 22) when most people are on their own for the first time. So might the attraction have also been about rebellion, defying conventional authority — be it religious or parental — and rejecting what society deems acceptable?

“Yes, some of us are forbidden to play,” said a 21-year-old tailback nicknamed Straw for his lanky build. He slouched comfortably, forearm resting on the shoulder of a defensive end sitting next to him, and seemed to be speaking for everyone.

He scratched his Mohawk haircut as Celtikciolu translated: “Guys sneak to practice and hide their equipment so their parents won’t find out. Our friends don’t like that we don’t play soccer. They act like soccer was invented in Turkey or something, or that it’s the ‘proper’ Muslim sport. They don’t even know what football is … . But them not liking it makes me want to play more.”

Aside from this cultural rebellion angle, it also seems that any help Americans provide is quickly turned into an issue linked to “missionary work” — one of the most controversial subjects in this country.

You see, Turks are Muslim and/or secular Muslims. Americans are Christian and/or secular Christians. It’s a national thing. It’s a cultural thing. It’s a sports thing.

It’s a religion thing.

I didn’t see any football posters coming in from the airport, but I will ask around. Lots of ads for the Beastie Boys concert, however. Are they Christian? No, wait, that’s another kind of religion thing.

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Filed Under: Islam, Sports, World Religions

It’s in the book of Baba

May 5, 2007 By

SathyasaibabaReader FzxGkJssFrk (is that his birth name, I wonder?), passed along a piece from ESPN’s Jemele Hill about National Football League rookie Terreal Bierria. The article is rather interesting but the reader noticed something amiss in this passage:

If Bierria never played in the NFL again, he could handle it. He believes everything — even the bad things — happens for a reason. A phrase in the Bible echoes in his head. It goes: “It’s only in the depths of silence that the voice of God can be heard.” Although life without football is more silent than he imagined.

Mr. FzxGkJssFrk said he didn’t think it sounded like the Bible but proceeded to look for it on BibleGateway. After coming up with nothing, he thinks he found the source of the quote: Sathya Sai Baba. He is not one of the authors of the Bible but is an Indian guru and religious leader. FzxGkJssFrk said:

I know we’re all ecumenical and big-tent now, but isn’t extending Monsieur Baba the privilege of adding to the canon taking things just a bit far?

Too funny. A good reminder for reporters to check the sources of quotes. Even on ESPN. Feel free to share your favorite similar reporter gaffe.

Photo via Sakhya.

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Filed Under: Journalism, Sports, World Religions

Perfectly pedestrian polygamists

March 7, 2007 By

SecretStoryIf I were queen of the world, I’d forbid reporters from using any variation of the they’re just like you and me theme for stories. It’s bad enough when Us Weekly does it with a photo package of celebrities shopping and walking their dogs. But when mainstream reporters do it, it’s embarrassing.

Back when Big Love — HBO’s drama about attractive and perfectly pedestrian polygamists — debuted, critics all emphasized how normal their marriage seemed. And a recent New York Times article on gay parents and their reproductive donors forming multi-parent families also emphasized normalcy.

This style of reporting smacks of advocacy, which is one reason I oppose it. But it also betrays a lack of understanding about why some people oppose polygamy or various other lifestyle choices. Certainly people are troubled by the rampant child sexual abuse and abandonment of young males that plagues polygamous communities. But it’s possible to oppose polygamous marriage on principle and for far more nuanced and subtle reasons then thinking “them people sure are weird.”

Which brings us to a New York Times story by Lee Jenkins about a young basketball star whose parents are in a polygamous marriage. The well-written and interesting story ran in the sports section and began this way:

When the cheering section for Joe Darger is at full strength, it includes his father, his mother, his 18 siblings and his father’s other wife.

They wear red T-shirts, blow on red noisemakers and wave red pompoms. They appear no different from any other group in the U.N.L.V. family section — only larger and louder.

Really? I thought they would have horns and green skin!

College basketball has plenty of experience with nontraditional family structures: parents in jail, parents in shelters, parents missing entirely. Joe grew up with three parents in the house.

See, Darger’s experience is no different than anyone else’s! Are we getting the message yet?

“I know the kid really well, and I like him a lot,” said Rick Majerus, a former Utah coach, who recruited Joe in high school. “I met the family, and they were very nice people — certainly loved their son and cared about him.”

polygamyWhich surprised me, since I figured his parents loathed him.

John Darger is a 60-year-old real estate developer with bushy gray hair, a thin goatee and a deep singing voice. He grew up with 46 siblings. His father had several wives. Polygamy was passed down like a family heirloom.

When John met Carollee 32 years ago, he was a construction worker and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple. For anniversaries, John still writes songs for Carollee.

John considers himself a Mormon, but he is no longer recognized as one. Because polygamy is illegal and the church renounced the practice more than a century ago, John said that he had been excommunicated. His children, however, remain active members of the church and have given no indication that they will practice polygamy.

See, they’re even more romantic than most couples! They’re not just normal — they’re better. I must mention that I appreciate the way the reporter concisely explained the polygamists’ relationship with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I also find it interesting that the children are active Mormons while the parents aren’t. For one thing I wonder how the children can be part of a church that condemns the polygamy of their very family and whether that causes any friction. Does this happen frequently where excommunicated Mormons have children in the church?

As Carollee relaxed on the beanbag chair, children came and went. Her sons cooked burritos. Her daughters gave each other massages. When polygamy was raised as a topic of conversation, they laughed. They say they think it is amusing that people are so fascinated by it.

“We are just people,” Carollee said. “We are normal people.”

Okay, we get it. Polygamists put their pants on one leg at a time. People with unorthodox marriages are normal. They’re less threatening than the Red Hat Society. It’s been beaten into me. I relent.

I feel a bit of regret for being so negative about this story. It’s a generally well-written feature on the sports page, and I’m sure most readers were just entertained by the novelty of it all.

But this “everyone is normal” theme is just overdone. Is it too much to ask for a new approach with stories about groups such as these? If everyone is normal, after all, then no one is newsworthy.

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Filed Under: Journalism, Social Issues, Sports

Holy day super mini-sermons

February 6, 2007 By

careerbuilder 731953There is an old media theory saying that effective advertisements are like small sermons. They show people struggling with a problem and then they claim to show a solution to that problem.

These mini-sermons end by showing the viewers how to make a leap of faith by doing whatever the ad tells them to do in order to solve the problem and, thus, improve their lives.

If you take this concept to its logical conclusion — as I did while teaching at Denver Seminary in the early ’90s — you can pay careful attention to advertising and, by doing so, learn a lot about the state of modern hearts, minds and souls. At the very least, you get a picture of what brilliant, high-paid advertising people think is wrong with our hearts, minds and, I would assume, souls.

Of course, I am talking about the old ads — modern ads, as opposed to postmodern ads that center almost totally on emotions and attitudes. Here is how I put this a few years ago, in an interview with Homiletics:

About half the ads on television today make no sense whatsoever in a linear fashion in terms of having anything remotely to do with the product. They’re getting across an attitude, a mood. They’re asking, “Do you want to be the kind of person who uses this product?” One ad theorist has said that “they presume the product has a soul.” If you think as a sacramental Christian, people are taking communion at the mall. They are consuming the product, the soul of the product, to become the essence of the product. It’s a liturgical experience. They’re taking communion at the mall. They are what they eat, which is the essence of the ancient church’s definition of communion.

As you would expect, I have a love/hate relationship with the ads shown during the Super Bowl, the economic lifeblood of this mega-secular holy day. (Click here for a collection.) Thus, I was glad when a reader sent me a link to report by WFAA in Dallas that focused on a pastor who was trying to get his congregation to pay more attention to the ads, not less.

Here is a chunk of the text by reporter Bob Greene:

GRAPEVINE – While a large amount of people anticipate the advertisements almost as much as the game during the Super Bowl, one North Texas pastor says when people search hard enough, they might also find a message. As he gave his sermon Sunday, Pastor Ken Diehm gave members of the First United Methodist Church of Grapevine an assignment — watch the Super Bowl.

“… Think about what messages you’re being sold,” he told the congregation.

Diehm said finding faith and life-messages in Super Bowl ads is something he has done for years. “One year I was watching the Super Bowl and I was watching the commercials and I thought, those are great messages. I ought to talk about those,” he said.

I’m sad to report that this story was about as deep as, well, a Super Bowl ad. Still, there is a subject in there worth exploring.

Like most critics, Diehm paid special attention to the Nationwide “life comes at you fast” ad featuring ex-Britney hubbie Kevin Federline. I thought the more interesting series was the latest offering from Careerbuilder.com and its hellish vision of what is, for millions of young Americans, their true home and spiritual sanctuary — the office.

The office. Heaven or hell? Is improving one’s pie charts a spiritual discipline? Perhaps workaholism is the subject hidden inside this sermon.

Hopefully there is some better coverage of this Super Bowl-related story out there, but I have not seen it. Did anyone else see coverage of this? Did anyone else see any mini-sermons in the ads this year?

Photo: Yes, this is an older Careerbuilder.com image. I am trying to find a way to link to the new jungle series.

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Filed Under: Humor, Pop Culture, Radio & TV, Sports

Is talking about God news?

February 5, 2007 By

dungyIn predictable fashion, the Indianapolis Colts sloppily walked all over the Chicago Bears last night and Colts head coach Tony Dungy gave God the credit for the win. The big question for us here at GetReligion is not whether Rex Grossman should be allowed to remain in the National Football League, but how and when the media should highlight Dungy’s comments.

In the spotlight, before a huge percentage of Americans and thousands of people in the stadium, Dungy said this, as reported by NFL.com:

“This is a great time for both of us,” Dungy said. “I’m so happy Lovie got to the Super Bowl because he does things the right way. He’s gotten there with a lot of class, no intimidation, just helping his guys play the best they can. That’s the way I try to do it and I think it’s great we’ve been able to show the world that not only can African-American coaches do it, but Christian coaches can do it in a way that you know we can still win.”

A piece by Associated Press football writer Barry Wilner excludes all reference to Dungy’s religious comments, which has some readers of this blog, especially Michael Eisenberg, not so happy. Eisenberg writes that Wilner’s piece misquotes Dungy, but from what I can tell, the article uses a different quote, offered either exclusively to Wilner or to a group of reporters.

In general most media outlets got the religion angle. This AP story by Steven Wine includes the quote in its entirety, and John Branch of The New York Times includes a reference to Dungy’s faith in the second paragraph of his piece on the two coaches:

MIAMI, Feb. 4 — In the midst of the rain and confetti falling on Dolphin Stadium on Sunday night, two men embraced near midfield and held on tight.

They were linked by football and friendship, faith and success. But Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith also shared a broader distinction: being the first African-Americans to coach a team to the Super Bowl.

My problem with this paragraph is that it is not factual. It is opinionated. The opinion, in fact, is not shared by at least one of two subjects, Dungy, who challenges the idea that his race matters more than his faith. As quoted in the Times:

“I tell you what, I’m proud to be representing African-American coaches, to be the first African-American coach to win this,” Dungy said. “It means an awful lot to our country. But again, more than anything, I said it before, Lovie Smith and I, not only the first two African-Americans, but Christian coaches showing you can win doing it the Lord’s way. We’re more proud of that.”

dungy gets dumped onI have not been able to account for the differences in the two quotes. If my memory serves me correctly, the Times version is more correct, but in this age of digital tape recorders and Tivos, messing up this quote is really inexcusable.

Is what Dungy said here news? He seems to insinuate that he and Smith are the only two Christian coaches to have ever won “doing it the Lord’s way,” but I really do not think that is the case, knowing that Dungy has a deep appreciation for the game and would know of the many other “Christian Super Bowl coaches” who came before him. How about some sports reporter covering the aftermath of the game asking him at the next press conference?

Art Stricklin of Baptist Press broke some news in reporting that CBS announcer Jim Nantz believed it was OK for Dungy to talk about his faith. But Nantz’s feeling that way isn’t the big story. The story is that “some people” were questioning whether faith was a fair thing to talk about:

MIAMI (BP) — When CBS announcer Jim Nantz asked Colts owner Jim Irsay and head coach Tony Dungy for comments after winning the AFC title two weeks ago, each man gave credit to God before a national TV audience.

“I had some people ask if I didn’t already know what they were going to say about their faith, but I thought, ‘What’s wrong with them expressing their beliefs?’” Nantz said. “We allow everybody else to say what they believe, why not them?”

… “Have we gotten so jaded in this country that we can’t stand to hear the good about a person? If you think that’s corny or hokey, then I really feel sorry for you,” Nantz added.

Good for Nantz and the several other reporters who caught onto the faith story, including the Houston Chronicle‘s Richard Justice and CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist Mike Freeman. While Freeman just mentions the God factor and Justice seems to recognize in his piece that the source of Dungy’s decency, calmness and classiness is his faith, I have yet to see a piece fully explore that aspect of the game. Here’s hoping that happens before this story goes cold.

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Filed Under: Evangelicals, Journalism, Radio & TV, Religion, Social Issues, Sports