What's 5-11, 212 lbs, fast, but oh so slow?

Clinton Portis

Cute, eh? Clinton Portis, Michael Vick, and pretty much everyone on TV is a bad role model. Let me give you a little back story on myself and where this is coming from.

I would like to think that when people consider my decision making process they can call it at least Biblically sound. I'm sure that people will call my decision making process lots of things, but biblically sound is really what I'm shooting for. Take for instance the fact that I work in a society that really loves hunting. For them hunting is equal parts sport and networking.

As most of you know, I am not a hunter. I like to think that I've become quite good at gathering. You know; gathering ground beef, gathering Hamburger Helper, gathering a 2 liter of Coconut soda. I am a gatherer. As is the case I have had to come to an opinion of hunting as I regularly faced it. It was either going to be Biblical or not.

Well, friends, I came to my opinion and I made my peace with hunting. You won't catch me blowing a hole in Bambi's gut, but I see the value for those around me. I reconciled it with the beginning of Genesis where we are told to rule over animals, I believe a level of responsibility came with that ruler ship as denoted by naming. Then meshing that with the later account of God saying we can eat just about anything and everything. . .till Leviticus. (Read Gen. chapters 1-9)

So I figure the point of hunting is to keep reign over animals. In so doing a necessary culling activity and protecting animals from over population. I know some of you are ready to flip out because it's our fault that they don't have homes. That's another fish for later frying. So hunting serves purposes and if done for it's biblical purposes is not sinful. Of course it can become a sinful activity if it becomes an idol or becomes an improper reign over God's creation.

So, you can see I wrestle with stuff. I check it and try to get it right. Which is why the most recent verbal diarrhea from Clinton Portis struck me so hard. He defended Dog Fighting. Dog fighting, to me, seems to fall in that area of poor treatment of God's creation. Is the meat being eaten? Is this really honoring to God? Do the full grown men watching hungry dogs snap at each other realize they are devaluing God's creation. I'm sure it's not hunting, and I'm sure it's not ok.

All of that to say this. Clinton Portis is a bad role model. Clinton Portis thinks my Atlanta Falcon's quarterback, Michael Vick is a good role model. That means Michael is a bad role model. And, it's time we stop letting TV time define role model worthiness. Full submission to Jesus Christ should be the merit of worth for all Christians. We fall so short when we place any level of worth on a person for any other reason.

So, in hindsight, Clinton said some really dumb stuff. That's to be expected from fallen man. His buddy backed up his dumb stuff. Which is to be expected from fallen man. Michael Vick is going to have a bad season, which is inevitably expected. Don't put your faith in a man, no matter what the hype, because he'll do something or say something dumb. Like saying, on national television, that there is nothing wrong with a little dog fighting.

Yeesh! This stuff never happens with the professional Boggle players.

Life without Falwell

I've had a day to sit on this Jerry Falwell dying thing. I'm calling it that because for so long he wasn't human to me, he was just that guy I poked fun at. I think most of us can say the same thing. He was a political bulls-eye or a sound bite, but he was never human. I think Rev. Falwell did his part to seem less than human by playing the games with modern media. He became a cause, the face of the moral majority, certainly not a human though.

I have to admit, I got caught up in the absurdity. I sent my pot shots at Rev. Falwell without really considering if he'd been misquoted or if his intentions were good. So, I've put on my rose colored glasses and I'm looking back at his life. I have been listening to the interviews on NPR and reading the blogs. Now I've got a little more sympathetic opinion of the late Reverend. I really think he had a deep passion for knowing Christ and making Him known. It's apparent that he felt a burden to help educate people in just about every walk of life. For all of his short comings, presupposed or not, I'm sad to see him go.

With all of my new found respect for Rev. Falwell and his adventures I still have some problems with a few of his theological stances. The soft filter that death allows us to view a life through can't change something that has an eternal weight. While his philanthropic and moral crusading will be viewed differently, I don't see how we can stop crying out against misuses of scripture and wrong teaching.

This is still the same person who loosely threw around the H word when he said, "We are not into particular love or limited atonement. As a matter of fact we consider it heresy." There by calling everyone who does believe in limited atonement a heretic(1 Tim 4:1-2), even if he didn't know he was doing it. He's also the man who stood behind Ergun Caner, President of Liberty University, when he said "Calvinists are worse than Muslims." I think we can all appreciate the implications of that statement, and I'm pretty sure that he knew what he was saying. I also think that they did a lot of dividing where dividing wasn't necessary.

Let's just call a duck a duck. The man did some good and we should applaud his life for that good. That doesn't mean we forget the bad. We don't learn anything if that happens. Let's study and discuss his theology, he does in fact have a University full of minds soaking it in. If it is wrong, let's humbly correct and reprove the offenders making sure to keep Matthew 22: 37-40 at the forefront of our reasons for doing so.

Jerry Falwell was a man. Plain and simple. He was a man on a big stage. He did some good and he made some mistakes. I hope to see him in heaven. I also hope we "reason together" about the many bold/brash statements that Rev. Falwell made, so that the body of Christ might be unified.

Please feel free to comment if you have a particular Rev. Falwell quote that infuriated you or enlightened you. Hopefully we can reason together and come to a better understanding of scripture through it.