Dan Caplis is a conservative talk radio host in Denver. He's also running for office - - senate or house at the state level, something along those lines. Dan's cohost on his radio show is Craig Silverman, a former prosecutor who is marginally more liberal than Dan. And for some reason, I just find it fascinating to listen to their individual takes on the issues du jour.
After the Rockies won the league pennant, for the first time ever getting the chance to go to the World Series as something other than a spectator or hotdog salesperson, Caplis & Silverman did a show on the "spiritual" influence on the team's late-season winning streak. Dan appeared to be convinced that God was in the details of the Rockies' successful run to the World Series, and that got me thinking - - is God a Rockies fan?
Dan referenced the faith of the Rockies manager and the entire team as a factor in their win in a sporting contest - - does this mean that the Diamondbacks are faithless heathens and that God punished them? Even if the Diamondbacks ARE faithless heathens, isn't there something a tad immoral about exercising one's omnipotence on behalf of one team in a sporting contest? God'll never get into the Baseball Hall of Fame now....
I was also struck by the possibility that God was taking time out of his busy schedule to muck around with which team wins a baseball game. What, did hostilities cease in Darfur? Were the monks released in Myanmar? Did we leave Iraq? Are children across Africa no longer being infected at birth with HIV? Are teens no longer being sexually assaulted in juvenile prison?
That's not really fair, I guess. Even God should be able to take a break, grab a cold Coors Lite and root for the most righteous team. Thanks, God, for finally getting the Rockies into the World Series - - we owe you one. Like, a firstborn.
Carla:
Any baseball team winning 21 out of its last 22 games must have experienced the intervention of a higher power.
This kind of stuff cracks me up - - when God is credited with saving one person from a fiery crash in which everyone else was evidently allowed to perish, or when God gets the credit for a made freethrow. Wish I had some of that there omnipresence......
Rocky Mountain hiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhhhh....in Colorado! Rocky Mountain hiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHHHH....in Colorado!
Just channeling some John Denver there - - our new state song. Friends around the campfire, everybody's high...high.....HIGH.
This is the best state EVER.
Sometimes it sounds like the opinion is being expressed that an individual is happy that "the Lord" allowed him to win, which I take to mean that the individual believes that he won on his own merits and he's "thankful" that "God" didn't interfere.
Which actually seems like a more sensible position than "God" wanted me to win so I won. At least in this scenario talent and effort are still valued. And like they say, we can't prove that "God" didn't not intervene. Yikes.
Now if the Nuggets play .500 ball, or Tancredo wins the '08 presidential election, or Colorado beats OU (heh-heh), that would be a sign of some Colorado fanship from the big buffalo in the sky. The Rockies winning the National League pennant is just the result of the fact that some team has to win and, well, its the National League.
As far as all that suffering stuff goes, I hope your not suggesting that God should be helping non-Americans or, even worse, liberals and minorities. I mean, Bush is a White American Republican (gotta love the acronym) and that man becoming President of the United States of America makes the resurrection look like a Chris Angel stunt. You just have to be born to a rich white American family and then God is all like "Sup, homey. We's tight yo."
This is an age old debate -
very well written
BTW, I don't think God cares who wins the World Series!
That said - as a resident of a NLW city - I am cheering for the Rockies
ron
Some players honor their God with their performances - - "This one's for you, God!", and they'd follow it with a butt slap if they could reach his holiness and wouldn't get smited as a result. I can see that - - if I make a good throw from third to first, I might honor my flesh-n-blood father, who taught be how to catch a hot grounder in my glove instead of with my chin.
You know they say that thunder is God bowling - - so maybe he IS a sports nut!
God is insulted by Steinbrenner's offer.
You make an excellent point - - there are so many non-white non-Americans playing baseball these days that God probably wouldn't touch the game with a ten-foot staff. Maybe he's moved on to hockey, or golf (nope, there's Tiger, isn't there), or curling. Yup, curling is the sport of Bush's God's choice.
Or maybe he's putting odds on serial killers, who are almost always white Christian men........hmmmmmmmm, that idea has legs!
The Nuggets have a .500 season - - you're off your meds!
Poor God. He just can't win, even when he wins. Being a supreme deity, with all the power in the universe, is a tough gig.
Thanks for commenting!
Once you think this issue through, it DOES make a great deal of sense - - any state that houses a Focus on the Family megaplex, plus a stations-of-the-cross walk up to a humongoid statue of Jesus, along with our very own Rocky Mountain monastery, is probably in good stead with the man upstairs. All this interest in sports convinces me that God must indeed be a man - - you don't see him taking time out to ensure that Title IX makes a big huge diff, do you? And the WNBA? C'mon!
And it shall come to pass, in the days of falling leaves and illegal wiretaps and interference in civil wars in other nations, that a team clad in God-approved purple shall smite all other meddlers in that sport that is played with a penis-metaphor club and a testicle-metaphor ball. And when that purple-robed team shall win the series of the world (or the world as defined by the United States, which is the United States), then the ZappaChrist shall walk upon the earth in his six-inch pink platform pumps with matching maribou trim and shall create an army of queens, drag and otherwise. And chaos shall reign.
Just comes down to us being scared little animals who try to create eternity for ourselves and even our ego-extensions......
I am afraid God isn't a Rockies Fan, although it seems like devine intervention, he is too busy rooting for the Redskins! Oh yeah!
Not so much that. I get the impression that they feel like they can do their best but then "God" decides if that's good enough, or maybe they worry that he will knock them down to keep them humble or something. So it would be for their own good like.
I like the Loki reference, it reminds me of a Heinlein novel, "Job, A Comedy of Justice", in which "God" kept changing realities on this poor dude and he hooked up with this Norwegian chick in one of them and he tried to explain to her what he perceived as happening and she brought up Loki. I only knew of him as some sort of nemesis to Thor and such from my comic book-reading days. Interesting.
Have you SEEN the Rocky Mountains? If there's a God and if he likes baseball and if he concerns himself with professional sports, then he's fer sher a Rockies fan. Two words - - Coors Field. One more word - - microbrews.
I'm going to have to read the book you mentioned - - can't say I've ever read a Heinlein novel before, but the premise of that one sounds really entertaining! Thanks, pal - - I'm always on the lookout for a good book......
Seriously, though, I'll go check it out this afternoon.....THANKS!
Or maybe it's a test of faith - - you always hear about God doing that, telling someone to kill his own kid just to see if the guy would actually commit a violation of God's own ten commandants just because God asked him to.
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AND THE LORD SAID, "THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR"
The same people who bought Dan's implied corellation between a winning streak and jesus, will accept the lame rational he uses to explain the team suddenly and decisively being shunned by the lord. ........Mysterious ways.....
Salud.
Not that I think God cares who won the world series.
Saw the interview with Clint Hurley after the game - what a classy man - all Rockies fans should be proud of him and his team - they just ran into the best team of the decade!
cheers.
ron
Anyway, I started reading "Stranger In a Strange Land", the original uncut version, last night again (just because I can). Some parts even seemed new; maybe it's early stage Alzheimer's.
Maybe God is a vegetarian, and he just was messing with the Monfort brothers by raising the Rox so high and then knocking 'em down like Lincoln Logs. No, that can't be it - - to quote Margaret Atwood, all gods are carnivorous.
My last (hopefully) comment on the World Series is: "WOO HOO, it's over! Let's get on to college basketball and hockey, dammitalltohell! Yippeekiyay!"
A quick anecdote about abridged books - - as a girl, I grew up reading and rereading the copy of "Little Women" that my mom and dad had in the family library. It wasn't until I was an adult that I bought my own copy, and it seemed, well, bigger - - turns out I'd read and reread a very much abridged version as a kid. What a gift it seemed to find out that there was MORE.....
I'm waiting for my copy of "Stranger in a Strange Land" and I'm hoping for much strangeness.
Home on the strange......that's GOOD.