{"id":62865,"date":"2023-02-23T17:04:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T22:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=62865"},"modified":"2023-02-23T17:04:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T22:04:12","slug":"born-to-lose-and-destined-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2023\/02\/23\/born-to-lose-and-destined-to-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Born to lose and destined to fail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2022 For political news from Florida we turn to the sports pages of a Pittsburgh newspaper: \u201cFlorida school district pulls children\u2019s book about Roberto Clemente off shelves<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A large Florida school district has pulled an illustrated children\u2019s biography of Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente off its shelves to determine whether it is \u201cdevelopmentally appropriate for student use.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0Also removed was \u201cRoberto Clemente: The Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates,\u201d a 2005 book by Dormont\u2019s Jonah Winter.<\/p>\n

The 32-page book references racism Clemente sometimes endured.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a right-fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, (Clemente) fought tough opponents \u2014 and even tougher racism \u2014 but with his unreal catches and swift feet, he earned his nickname, \u2018The Great One,\u2019 \u201d a blurb for the book reads.<\/p>\n

\u2026 \u201cI make mention of the racism that Clemente encountered as a younger player,\u201d Winter said. \u201cI guess they banned it because they think it might make some white children uncomfortable. These are very strange times that we live in.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clemente spent his entire career with the Pirates and thus had 17 seasons of spring training in Florida, the same state where the story of his life is now deemed inappropriate for schoolchildren.<\/p>\n

For the first seven years of his career, Roberto Clemente was not permitted to stay in the same hotel as most of the Pirates, nor to eat at restaurants in Florida with his white teammates. Even after he\u2019d won batting titles and established himself as the leader and heart and soul of the team Clemente still had to start every season in segregation in the Jim Crow Florida that its current governor doesn\u2019t want anyone to remember or to read about.<\/p>\n

See earlier: \u201cSpring training in black and white<\/a>\u201d and \u201c\u2018\u2018The Soreno has politely said No\u2019<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Smithsonian offers<\/em> its annual list of \u201cTen Dazzling Celestial Events to See in 2023<\/a>.\u201d The first item has already flown by (literally), but here\u2019s hoping it won\u2019t be cloudy out for all<\/em> of the rest of these.<\/p>\n

The dance between Jupiter and Venus next week comes just in time for driving-pallets-of-mulch-around-a-dark-parking-lot season, so that\u2019ll be nice. Conjunctions are pretty.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The impressive thing about The Onion<\/em> is their ability to outrace reality, even if just barely. Here, for example, is America\u2019s Finest News Source in a post published on Monday: \u201cEvangelical Leaders Announce J.K. Rowling Finally Bigoted Enough That It\u2019s Okay For Kids To Read About Witchcraft<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here, just three days later, is the Southern-Gothic-Presbyterian World<\/em> magazine, \u201cAre evangelical leaders as courageous as J.K. Rowling?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

World<\/em> accompanies its piece with a photo of Rowling from the same event \u2014 same dress, same backdrop \u2014 as the photo in The Onion\u2019s<\/em> piece. The tone of the two pieces is also indistinguishable.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 Here\u2019s the key bit from Katie Walsh\u2019s Los Angeles Times<\/em> review of the Calvary Chapel Jesus Revolution<\/em> movie<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, despite the interesting history, the film itself is a dry, scattered slog, neutered of all the thorny, contradictory details of the real story. Give Lonnie Frisbee\u2019s Wikipedia page<\/a> a quick scan to see just how much material the filmmakers excised from his fascinating, troubled life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s not easy to make Lonnie Frisbee\u2019s life seem dull, but the auteurs of \u201cfaith-based\u201d white evangelical cinema may be up to that task. Contrast that Wikipedia entry with Greg Laurie\u2019s RNS movie-hyping op-ed on \u201cThe long strange trip of Lonnie Frisbee<\/a>\u201d and you\u2019ll get a sense of how this film dodge\u2019s the full story and the full person.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Speaking of utopian religious movements \u2026 Naum at AZspot<\/a> recently linked back to this 2013 piece from the Awl<\/em> by Jacob Mikanowski, \u201cOur Radical Future: Cults, Utopias and Rebellions of the 1890s<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, that piece is now 10 years old, but the apocalyptic is always timeless, and it\u2019s a fascinating read.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The title for this post comes from Social Distortion\u2019s \u201cBall and Chain<\/a>,\u201d which has something of a Rescue-Mission revival vibe to it.<\/p>\n