Maureen O’Connell, assistant professor of theology at Fordham University, asks about second chances for criminal offenders focusing on NFL player Michael Vick who was sent
A scholar argues that March Madness and other spectator sports are the opiate of the masses.
Just a reminder that the NCAA Men’s Basektball Tournament is about to begin, and Episcopal Cafe is helping to support the March Gladness compeition sponsored by Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. To participate, all you do is:
The NCAA’s Selection Show airs this evening, and Episcopal Cafe has caught a case of March Gladness. We are offering a $100 bonus to the MDG-related charity chosen by the winner of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation’s March Gladness competition. The only catch is that you have to register your name with us as a commenter before the first tournament game is played. Find out more.
Sports-crazed Americans may not have been looking for a way to follow the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament while supporting the Millennium Development Goals, but that didn’t stop the Rev. Mike Kinman of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation from developing one. Check it out.
Is our church culture too expert-driven and so focused on what we know and what we’ve been taught that it separates us from the learning opportunities (and confusion and frustration) that come with real practice?
…it can work for the Episcopal Church. The theme of the 2009 General Convention is ubuntu, a Swahili word meaning (roughly) “I am because we are.” Turns out, as these videos attest, it was also the concept the Celtics coach Doc Rivers instilled in his team during its NBA championship-winning season.
While most of us enjoy watching our children engage in athletic endeavors, it’s amazing how many parents feel imprisoned by weekend youth sports. The constant shuttling around to practices and games, the precious moments of free time being slowly sucked away by 10-minute quarters. No one’s forcing you at gunpoint to sign your kid up, but guilt and suburban peer pressure are powerful things.
Mandela was keenly aware that his party’s victory, secured by a landslide of black votes, lacked the endorsement of alienated whites, and that whites retained sufficient wealth and weaponry to endanger his new democracy if they felt threatened.
So much focus on striving to win always leaves me uneasy. If the last shall be first, I find myself wondering, how do you defend years of training to go for the gold? Most of us know what it means to want to be the best at school or in the office, or to get our way in relationships. These yearnings don’t generally bring out our most loving or generous selves.