Hooray for New TV Season!

Did I ever think I would ever write a title to a post like that? No. I never thought I would ever watch a show regularily. Alas, during my time in Orlando last year, I became a fan of some of the new TV shows. I have always been a fan of How I Met Your Mother and so watched that each week, but I also became a huge fan of Community (brilliant writing) and (this is somewhat sad to admit) Glee. I love most of the music in Glee and am a sucker for the emotion in the show. Below is an excellent example of what I loved about Glee. So if you are into watching TV at all... check out those three shows. I am sure there are a lot more good ones out there too, but those are the ones I will be tuning into.

Amazing Carvings

Click on the LINK and prepare to be amazed

Manute Bol's Radical Christianity

This is an article that was originally posted on the Wall Street Journal, found by clicking on THIS LINK HERE. It inspires, challenges and gives me hope. I am sure Manute was greeted with a "Well done, good and faithful servant." I hope to meet him someday on the other side.

By JON A. SHIELDS

As any churchgoer who tuned in to watch the recent NBA finals contest between the Lakers and Celtics already knows, the term redemption is probably now heard more often in NBA sports broadcasts than in homilies. A Google search under "redemption" and "NBA" generates approximately 2 million hits—more hits than "redemption" and "Christianity." The term can also be found in more than 2,600 stories on ESPN.com.

Associated Press

Manute Bol

What does redemption mean in the world of professional basketball and sports more broadly? It involves making up for—or, yes, "atoning"—for a poor performance. When the Lakers beat Boston, for instance, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times called the victory "redemption for the Celtics' 2008 Finals beating."

More often, though, sports journalists use the term to praise the individual performances of NBA superstars. Thus, the Associated Press reported that Kobe Bryant "found redemption" after he won a title in 2009 without the aid of his nemesis and former teammate Shaquille O'Neal.

Manute Bol, who died last week at the age of 47, is one player who never achieved redemption in the eyes of sports journalists. His life embodied an older, Christian conception of redemption that has been badly obscured by its current usage.

Bol, a Christian Sudanese immigrant, believed his life was a gift from God to be used in the service of others. As he put it to Sports Illustrated in 2004: "God guided me to America and gave me a good job. But he also gave me a heart so I would look back."

He was not blessed, however, with great athletic gifts. As a center for the Washington Bullets, Bol was more spectacle than superstar. At 7 feet, 7 inches tall and 225 pounds, he was both the tallest and thinnest player in the league. He averaged a mere 2.6 points per game over the course of his career, though he was a successful shot blocker given that he towered over most NBA players.

Bol reportedly gave most of his fortune, estimated at $6 million, to aid Sudanese refugees. As one twitter feed aptly put it: "Most NBA cats go broke on cars, jewelry & groupies. Manute Bol went broke building hospitals."

When his fortune dried up, Bol raised more money for charity by doing what most athletes would find humiliating: He turned himself into a humorous spectacle. Bol was hired, for example, as a horse jockey, hockey player and celebrity boxer. Some Americans simply found amusement in the absurdity of him on a horse or skates. And who could deny the comic potential of Bol boxing William "the Refrigerator" Perry, the 335-pound former defensive linemen of the Chicago Bears?

Bol agreed to be a clown. But he was not willing to be mocked for his own personal gain as so many reality-television stars are. Bol let himself be ridiculed on behalf of suffering strangers in the Sudan; he was a fool for Christ.

During his final years, Bol suffered more than mere mockery in the service of others. While he was doing relief work in the Sudan, he contracted a painful skin disease that ultimately contributed to his death.

Bol's life and death throws into sharp relief the trivialized manner in which sports journalists employ the concept of redemption. In the world of sports media players are redeemed when they overcome some prior "humiliation" by playing well. Redemption then is deeply connected to personal gain and celebrity. It leads to fatter contracts, shoe endorsements, and adoring women.

Yet as Bol reminds us, the Christian understanding of redemption has always involved lowering and humbling oneself. It leads to suffering and even death.

It is of little surprise, then, that the sort of radical Christianity exemplified by Bol is rarely understood by sports journalists. For all its interest in the intimate details of players' lives, the media has long been tone deaf to the way devout Christianity profoundly shapes some of them.

Obituary titles for Bol, for example, described him as a humanitarian rather than a Christian. The remarkable charity and personal character of other NBA players, including David Robinson, A. C. Green and Dwight Howard, are almost never explicitly connected to their own intense Christian faith. They are simply good guys.

Christian basketball players hope that their "little lights" shine in a league marked by rapacious consumption and marital infidelity. They could shine even brighter if sports journalists acknowledged that such players seek atonement and redemption in a far more profound way than mere athletic success.

Jon A. Shields is assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

Mumford and Sons

An old friend just wrote a well thought out, profound even, article featuring the band Mumford and Sons. Check out the article at this link http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/worship/features/22374-when-the-secular-is-sacred and check out just one of their many fantastic songs below.

My Music Monday - Griffin House

Don Miller described this song by Griffin House (a fellow Miamian, now living in Nashville) as having a "Tom Petty feel." Insightful and accurate and a great compliment, it reminded me of Last Dance for Mary Jane but about something important a la Won't Back Down. I have been a Griffin fan for a long time, ever since hearing his CD "Lost and Found" in my favorite coffee shop, Kofenya. I have seen him twice in concert and man, the guy can write a song to lose your heart to and in the next minute make one that elicits a response of "I agree, well said" or "Are you so sure? Cause that offends me." Either way, I consider it good art because it elicits that response. Check his stuff out. I don't think you will regret it.

My Music Monday: Ben Rector

I have been thinking of a lot of ways to get me back to normal blogging/writing and ways to make this blog something worthwhile. I am thinking that I want to at least post twice a week. Once will be something I will call My Music Monday. Each Monday I will post an artist that I have been digging lately. This may be an old favorite, it may be a single song, it may be a freebie, it may be a new favorite. But it will be something that I recommend. The second post of the week will be something a little more thought out.

For the inaugural My Music Monday, I present Ben Rector. I found out about Ben through a great website called BriteRevolution.com and was instantly smitten. I have always been a sucker for piano pop and Ben is kind of a less sarcastic Ben Folds (what is with piano guys named Ben?). The song that got my most was called "Hank", a song to his nephew that made me wish I had written it. Favorite line: "Go and find the girl for whom your love is selfless, someone who makes you helpless to change the way you feel. And stay away from girls who always look so pretty but whose hearts arent fitting for the man in you I see." It is just good, upbeat most of the time, piano-pop that doesn't try to be more than it is but still speaks in a way that isn't simply rose colored bubble gum pop. To download for free, check out the link below.

If you like some of the music I recommend, please let your friends know about this. I am going to try to build somewhat of a blog following, which means I value your input and time. Thanks for giving me a shot.

Fear Not

If I could point you toward a website that has consistently great content, check out The Rabbit Room at rabbitroom.com. Their latest that hit my life a sunrise is http://www.rabbitroom.com/?p=5656#more-5656 entitled "Fear Not" by my favorite singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson. Read it and take heart.