Well, BYU won its tenth football game of the season last night (as compared to one loss), defeating the University of Cincinnati at Nippert Field in Ohio.
I don’t typically comment about BYU athletics here, or about sports in general. And this comment won’t really be about football, either. I want, though, to call attention to something that’s connected with last night’s contest:
For years now, prior to road games, BYU has sponsored tailgate parties that focus on generating contributions to local charities. (If I’m not mistaken, during the lead-up to yesterday’s BYU/Cincinnati game there was a coat drive to support the Cincinnati NAACP and to provide local children with winter coats.) Moreover, ahead of last night’s game the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a 27,000 pound food donation for Cincinnati’s on-campus Bearcats Pantry to support students who might be facing food insecurity. It’s the largest single donation in the Pantry’s history. (See “‘Moved beyond words’: University of Cincinnati officials grateful for Latter-day Saint food donation to Bearcat students in need: Ahead of BYU’s football game with Cincinnati, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated 27,000 pounds of food to Cincinnati’s on-campus food pantry.”) For home games, on the other hand (and as is becoming well known), BYU fans seek out fans of the visiting team in the stands and give them free ice cream. Here, though, are two reports from Nippert Field last night:
“Cincinnati Students Disrespect BYU With Explicit Anti-Mormon Chant Despite Charitable Gestures”
I’ll happily take the contrast. (I confess to being just slightly surprised that the bigoted chants that began at other campuses quite a while ago have continued unabated and unashamed right on through and beyond the lethal religiously-motivated attack on a Latter-day Saint sacrament service that occurred in Grand Blanc, Michigan, on 28 September of this year, not quite two months ago.) There is, though, biblical counsel for such matters, and I’m very pleased that Brigham Young University and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seem to be following it — here and in other, analogous, cases.
“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
Or, if that seems a bit too sweetly idealistic, how about this?
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee. (Proverbs 25:21-22)
Or, even, Romans 12:21 in its full context, with the verses that precede it:
Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)
I could not possibly be more gratified by the way that BYU football and its fans are presenting themselves in this regard. And, oh yes: While we’re still on the topic of the game last night between Cincinnati and BYU, did I mention that we won?
Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Herbsttag” ranks among my very favorite poems, and it’s time to share it here once again. It’s a kind of prayer, as befits the Thanksgiving season:
Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los.Befiel den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;
gib ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage,
dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein.Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben,
wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben
und wird in den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.
And here it is in a translation (“Autumn Day”) by J. Mullen:
Lord: it is time. The summer was great.
Lay your shadows onto the sundials
and let loose the winds upon the fields.Command the last fruits to be full,
give them yet two more southern days,
urge them to perfection, and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.Who now has no house, builds no more.
Who is now alone, will long remain so,
will stay awake, read, write long letters
and will wander restlessly here and there
in the avenues, when the leaves drift.
A week or two ago, I came across the assured declaration online that there is absolutely no rational, reasonable, objective evidence to suggest a life after death. The person issuing the declaration is of no particular intellectual distinction or scholarly authority, but I was struck — and, truth be told, somewhat amused — by the complete confidence with which he issued it. I can only conclude that he doesn’t get out much or read very extensively. I understand people who remain unconvinced of the claim of an afterlife, but I’ll admit to having little regard for anybody who flatly declares that there simply isn’t any evidence for the postmortem survival of human personality. Thousands of accounts of near-death and related experiences are now on record, from all around the world. These certainly suggest, if indeed they don’t do more than that, the continuation of consciousness beyond death. And I’m now coming to appreciate the phenomenon of terminal lucidity as representing yet another line of argument in the same direction. (And those are just two chains of reasoning that I find interesting and, yes, persuasive.)
In this context, I share something that a few here might enjoy: I just got off the telephone a few minutes ago with a retired BYU professor whom I’ve known well for decades. He thought, he said, that I might be interested in hearing about something that had recently happened to him. My ears perked up when he opened his story by explaining that he had died earlier this month. He told of watching himself being revived, from a position above and behind his body. He himself is astonished at what happened. It’s a simple out-of-body experience, far and away not the most elaborate or complex that I’ve encountered. But if even one such account is true, physicalism and the reduction of mind to brain appear to be false, and a life after death becomes exponentially more probable. I’ve asked him to write the experience up for me.
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