A Rant

I think the main problem might be that I think too much! Or, maybe it’s that I retain a lot of information in my head. Whatever the cause, certain things seem to niggle at me.

This is one of them.

This morning, I was doing my usual check on NFL news for the week. The typical stuff was there. Steve McNair is hurt; not going to play; thinking about retirement. The Brown’s players are pumped that Butch Davis resigned as coach. Peyton Manning is going to win again this weekend because … well, he rocks! Then I read an article about Ben Roethlisberger … new wonderkind of the league. Pittsburgh is not worried about his “slump” because they are 10-1. OK. Fine.

At the end of the article were these statements:

Roethlisberger knew the scrutiny would increase as the playoffs approached, and even the NFL has begun finding fault with its newest star.

He was told this week to no longer paint a small ”40” (for Pat Tillman) and `PFJ” (for “Play For Jesus”) on his shoes to avoid violating the league’s uniform code. He was told previously to stop wearing a yellow Lance Armstrong LiveStrong wrist band.

Now I don’t want to get off on a rant here (OK … I love Dennis Miller) but the whole thing about the LiveStrong wrist band drove me nuts.

So we’ve got a quarterback who paints 40 and Play for Jesus on his shoes each week AND wears the LiveStrong band. You say, “big freakin’ deal.” Well, you see here’s the rub. Lance Armstrong is an atheist. When he says that we need to live strong, he means that we need to do it ourselves … without God.

http://www.celebatheists.com/entries/ambiguous_0.htmlDon’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against Lance Armstrong. He’s an amazing athlete. He’s probably a really great guy (although I get the feeling he’s an ultracompetitive chauvinist). He’s a cancer survivor against seeming insurmountable odds.

He also believes he’s done all of this without God. Seems a bit cocky to me … a bit self-important. That’s what I have trouble with.

I first heard about Lance’s belief in self, medicine, and mental strength in an interview on TV. The interviewer asked him if he believed God pulled him through the cancer. He said no. At that moment, my perception of him changed. Now, he’s not so much someone to look up to. His star is somewhat less bright. Fair? Who knows? It just is.

That’s why the whole LiveStrong wrist band thing bugs me. Ben Roethlisberger makes a statement about his faith and then supports something that essentially says that you can do it on your own. He’s not the only one. There are some I work with (staunch Christians) proudly wearing the bands. I wonder if they know? My guess is no.

The gray area in all of this is what kills me. My mom is a cancer survivor … and, odds are, she shouldn’t be. She’d be the first to tell you that to beat cancer you have to “live strong.” She’d also be the first to tell you that the strength comes straight from God … as does the healing.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) is fighting to find a cure for cancer and someone surely needs to do that. The $1 cost of the bands goes into the funding for research … as does the $1 million Nike donated when it partnered with LAF to do the project. That’s a lot of money going to the right place for the right reason. Still, something doesn’t sit right with me on a personal level.

Gaylard Moore told me once that God gave us all the power to “subdue the earth” … even those who don’t believe. Perhaps this is another example of that. We don’t ignore the mathematic advances of pagan discoverers. We don’t discount scientific inventions made by those who didn’t believe. In fact, we embrace them and use them daily in the products that simplify our lives and in the ways we have long since stopped noticing. The upshot? The strength in Lance Armstrong came from God … whether he believes it or not. It’s a gift.

Still, there’s something not right. Something’s off kilter. I tend to do well when I go with those intuitions. So, I’ll send my $1 donation straight to the American Cancer Society or the Komen Foundation. No band for me, thanks.

Of course, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.