Mark Byron

Another Lakeland Revival?

Here's a stunner from the sports news page; the Tigers just optioned Dontrelle Willis to Lakeland, not for rehab stint, but a full-fledged sent-to-the-minors demotion to the Tigers single-A club. I was surprised that the Tigers still had "options" on Willis.

Willis (0-1) has walked 21 batters in 11 1/3 innings. The 8-2 loss to the Indians came in his second start since going on the disabled list with a hyperextended right knee.

Maybe he can stop by and see if Todd Bentley can get a word of knowledge on where his control went; that would be a true miracle. That would be a Lakeland career revival that even a cessationist would approve of.

One Beautiful Game, at Least

I got to catch a bit of the Italy-Netherlands game kicking off Group C play in this summer's Euro 2008 soccer championships, including a pair of spectatular goals from the Dutch to go up 2-0 on the blue boys late in the first half; the Dutch hung on to win 3-0.

Van Nistelrooy's breakthrough goal was claimed to be offside by Italy, but the striker deflected a 20-meter (yard) shot from Van Bronckhorst past Gianluigi Buffon with an Italy defender off the field next to the goal.

The second goal was a perfect counter. Van Bronckhorst first kicked a ball off his own line in a goalmouth scramble and immediately rushed up the left, where he took a long pass from Rafael van der Vaart. The Italians had trouble dragging their aging feet back and were woefully out of position when Van Bronckhost sent a defense-splitting pass to Dirk Kuyt on the right.

The Liverpool player, who only started because of a groin injury to Arjen Robben, headed it perfectly into the path of Sneijder and the midfielder volleyed it past Buffon. There may not be a better goal in the tournament.

That first goal reminded me of a hockey goal where a player deflects a shot close to the goal such that the goalie has little chance to respond. However, such goals are harder to do in soccer, since that deflected shot is treated as a pass, and you have to have two opposing players in front of you when a pass is made to avoid getting called offside.

The Italians were screaming offside, as was I (sort of; I had no dog in the fight and was rooting somewhat for the Dutch since the Italians get cocky about their football) when the goal happened, but as it turned out, there was a Italian defender on the baseline to provide that second defender, and the goal was deemed legit.

The second goal is one that had to break the Italian's heart. They had a corner kick that almost went in, then the Dutch quickly countered and scored in seconds; there's the action that American soccer skeptics claim to be missing from "the beautiful game."

I'll have some afternoons free the next two weeks during my between-term-break; I might catch a few more of these games if they keep this up.

Godly Self-Esteem?

We had to go to the southern side of Houston for the baptismal service yesterday, and scooted down US-59 past Lakewood Church's  new digs at the old Summit basketball stadium downtown; that's Joel Osteen's joint.

I was reminded of a verse from Steven Curtis Chapman's Blind Lead the Blind-

There's a preacher in a nice church
Anchored in the heart of town
People flock to hear his eloquent delivery
He talks of Jesus how he can please us
But the cross cannot be found
Makin' theory out of facts until they're all deceived
And the lost lead the way
And more hearts are led astray

In the past, I pictured such a church as being one of those old-brick mainline churches, where traditional theology has been chucked out the door in order to fit into modern culture; the need for a personal Savior that has moral standards that need to be followed is what generally goes in such churches.

However, a lot of mainline churches have adopted a Social Gospel ethic of helping the poor and railing against middle-class hedonism. Such orthopraxy isn't bad, but needs to be matched with orthodoxy, a theology that maintains the classic Gospel of a savior that died for us and a human sinfulness that needs to be died for and personally responded to.

What Osteen does is maintain orthodoxy (on the basic points of faith, he's a fairly orthodox evangelical) and shoves communal orthopraxy out the airlock. His message is of self-help with the Holy Spirit's help, of using scriptural truths to improve our lives rather than focus on improving the lives of others, of focusing on what the Holy Spirit can do rather than what Jesus did on the cross. That's a more pleasing Jesus than what your stereotypical brimstone-merchant Baptist would bring to the table.

There are a lot of people who lack self-confidence and need an ego boost from a preacher that holds up the Bible and says to folks that you're created in God's image, that He don't make junk and that God will equip you to do the things He said his believers will do. Is that half Dr. Phil and half old-school Gospel? Yes. However, it seems to scratch a big enough itch in Houston where the church generates enough cash flow to pay for a nine-figure overhaul of their new stadium-church.

I run into a lot of night students in my college teaching job that lack confidence that could us a bit of that positive attitude. It does set people up for disappointment when the real God delivers a bit slower than the Osteens of the world advertise. That doesn't mean there isn't a place in the American spiritual marketplace for some spiritual confidence-building.

Thus, I was taken a bit aback by Randy McRoberts' suggestion of anti-Osteen theological sabotage at the bookstore. We could use better books that Osteen's on how to gain confidence in yourself as a child of God, but there is a niche that he his filling; it's up to more orthodox Christian to come up with a better way of expressing that love of God to the struggling folks, of providing a sense of godly self-esteem that doesn't flow from a Word-of-Faith theology that misrepresents God.

Monday Musings

Spring quarter's finally in the books; I posted grades earlier this morning. I have an all-conventional summer term, so I have no on-line material to work up in advance and can enjoy an actual vacation for the first time since starting back into teaching.

We're in Houston for the week visiting my in-laws, including my newest niece born late last month. The weather is hawt and the nieces and nephew corner the cute market so bad, the CTFC is investigating; we got to see them get baptized (it's the Presbyterian side of Eileen's clan; on my side, my sister's clan's Assembly of God, so we're waiting on Jessica and Tyler to have their own profession of faith first) yesterday.

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Good news from the Saudi entity; they think oil prices are too high. We'll see if that helps bring oil prices off of the ceiling.

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Speaking of oil prices and oil producers, Caesar Chavez is actually playing nice for once in recorded history, asking the FARC to lay down their guns and cough up their hostages- "At this point in time, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place ... guerrilla wars are history."

I wonder if Chavez is looking at Nepal as a role model, where the Maoists were brought out of the hills and into an new electoral system. However, the Nepalese Maoists didn't have a billion-dollar drug industry to sustain them, which complicates things in bringing the FARC out of outlaw status.

The FARC may well be the one thing that could stall Chavez's plans of a pan-South American Bolivarian movement with Chavez as sugar daddy; they give a rival vision to a politically-gained socialist system and disrupt things enough where the US might come to blows with Chavez if he does anything more to support FARC. Getting the FARC off the field takes away the one rationale the US could use to get involved in the region and oust Chavez.

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Ted Kennedy's out of the hospital. Just a reminder to the rightmost wing of the Peanut Gallery; we are supposed to pray for our enemies, even the guys on the other side of the political aisle. Also, no snide comments about brain cancer.