time for a little football

I think college football is a reflection of Middle America.
You go into a college football town, and you will find three generations
of a family sitting together.
It’s a rallying point for the university, the community,
and the families.
Keith Jackson (a Georgia born football announcer legend)

(Sanford Stadium, UGA, Athens on Saturday Sept 11th / AJC)

If there is anything that confidently thumbs its nose to Covid,
Vaccines, mask madness, political madness…. it’s football.
Be it college or even the NFL, fans are packing their favorite stadiums en masse.
Folks are ready for some football!

Of course there will be those doomsday naysayers as there will also be
those excited sideline cheerleaders.

There will be the super-spreader negative Nancy’s vs the life as we once knew it
super fans.
Tailgates and Dawgwalks vs social distancing and limitations–
Masks and vaccine passports vs the filling of stadiums.

I don’t know the happy medium with all of this…but personally,
I am glad football and her fans are back!

There are many changes in college football besides things like Covid.

Think play for pay and transfer on a whim….

I can’t say I agree with the current trend to pay college players…
giving them endorsement incentives…some of the team making millions off
their image and name while their teammates make nada.
I don’t know how that won’t build resentment…but what do I know.

Also I don’t agree with the firing of coaches in the middle of a season.
I think it was Lou Holtz who once said no good comes from firing coaches during
the middle of a season and I happen to agree.
Think of USC just firing their coach after the first two games.
What a ripple effect.
Think of the upheaval of a coach and his staff and their families…at the
onset of a season…

I don’t like the transfer portal.
It’s more like hopscotching when things don’t go the way one wants
them to go.

So yep, there’s a lot I don’t agree with…sadly it’s a big money business.
Big business takes a lot of the fun out of the game….
but what do I know, I’m just a fan.

Soooo, my feelings really don’t matter.
Money and power talks…my 2 cents mean nothing.

However, I can say that I am just thankful football is back!
Fans are back!
Energy is back.
Community is back.

Fans make the game what it is—something we can all rally around.

So Saturday, 9/11, at the Miami game of all things, a cat was lose in the
stadium.
Somehow this cat is seen dangling from an upper deck…
falling would be a death sentence or certain detrimental injury.
The cat is literally hanging by a claw.

Fans below this upper deck jump into action…they stretch out an
American flag to act as a net for when the cat falls.

And sure enough, the cat falls…safely…into the flag net.

Dana Perino captured the story best when she relayed the telling
of the event during her time on FOX’s The Five Monday afternoon.

She said that this event is a prime example of what makes Americans who we are.
This event should show our enemies, like the Taliban, that we Americans
do and can come together when our hearts find a common goal.
At this particular moment, it mattered not our political views,
our religious alliances, or our skin color…
there was a creature in need and we human beings sprang into action.

Like good scouts, the fans found what they had, a flag, and used it as a net.

The cat fell into the flag…then one of the rescuing fans lifted the cat
overhead for all to see–much like a Lion King moment,
as the stadium erupted in grateful glee.

Never mind that the cat later scratched his rescuer…
The cat was saved from doom because of the kindness of American hearts.
So when all is said and done…it seems that we still have our hearts intact—
we still have what makes us Americans…a desire to help…
even for a stray cat.

And so just when we’re all feeling full of gloom and doom…
a football game and a cat reminds us that we still have hope in who we are…

So who’s ready for a little football??

“Objective evidence is irrelevant”

Christians are now being punished for what others think
David Roberston

Yesterday I shared a post by our friend Gavin Ashenden–his post was about mob rule
and the cancel culture.
It was a post which highlighted the cancel culture attacking J.K. Rowling and her
defense of biological sex.

Despite Rowling being an ardent feminist, the mob has cared not…
all because in the mind of the mob,
biological sex does not exist and don’t you or anyone else dare to say otherwise.

Dr. Ashenden noted that in today’s topsy turvy society, truth is considered to be anathema,
an abomination…and because truth is perceived as hurtful and in turn hateful,
it is something that must now be canceled because the mob will not tolerate it.

So let that sink in…this current culture of ours will not tolerate truth—
because truth runs contrary to the mob’s own beliefs.

Truth has become the foremost casualty in this insidious culture war of ours.

And so I found it more than coincidental that yesterday, a day following Dr, Ashenden’s post,
our now down-under friend David Roberston wrote a column for Christianity Today based
on this very notion of the mob, truth, personal thought, and the lack of tollerance

The story focused on the firing of a young, UK Christian teacher, Kristie Higgs
for something, she had posted on her personal Facebook page.

She wrote the post using her maiden name and did not mention anything about being a teacher
herself, nor anything about the school where she worked but rather she wrote a post as a mother
who was concerned about what her young son was being taught in his school.

According to David’s article, “She was concerned about her nine-year-old son being taught
that gender is just a social construct and you can change your gender if you wish.
She objected to the mandatory Religious and Sex Education,
which the government had determined was to be taught to children as young as four.
She argued, correctly, that it was brainwashing.”

“She was concerned about the impact of transgender ideology being taught to young children –
a concern which is more than justified by the evidence becoming available which describes
the harm that is being caused to children.

But an anonymous complainant went to the headteacher and described her posts as
“homophobic and prejudiced to the LGBT community”.
The headteacher is then reported to have asked the complainant to find more offensive posts.
Kristie was subsequently investigated, suspended and fired.
The panel which investigated her, said her views were “pro-Nazi”
and she was told to “keep your religion out of it” when she tried to defend herself.

According to the tribunal, her dismissal
“was the result of a genuine belief on the part of the school that she had committed
gross misconduct”.
Kristie was not dismissed for her beliefs but rather because of the beliefs of the school.
I have a genuine belief that the tribunal was being irrational, discriminatory and prejudiced
by the criteria the tribunal uses,
so that means they should find themselves guilty! Unless my belief is irrelevant,
that is, and only some beliefs count.

It gets worse. The tribunal states that Mrs Higgs was found guilty of posting items
on Facebook that “might reasonably lead people who read her posts to conclude that she
was homophobic and transphobic”.
Yet that same tribunal admitted that Mrs Higgs was not transphobic or homophobic,
nor did they state that the posts themselves were transphobic or homophobic –
just that some people might think they were, and thus they would cause upset.

That is why this ruling is so important. If this judgement is allowed to stand,
it will mean two things. Firstly, the whole standard of law will now be changed.
Guilt is now determined not upon evidence but simply upon the faith and feelings
of the prosecuting party! Based on an anonymous complaint, a tribunal decided that
a private post (which was not available to the public) was sufficient grounds
for an employee to be fired. This means that anyone who finds what someone says
to be potentially upsetting or offensive, now has the ability to get them fired.
Objective evidence is irrelevant. (my bold text)

Except it does not mean that.
It does not mean that ANYONE who finds something offensive can get someone else fired.
It just means that only certain approved and protected groups have the ability to use
the law to enforce their views.
I suspect that the school would not have fired a teacher who posted a message
that I would find offensive about Christianity. If this judgement stands,
we will have lost the principle of ‘all are equal before the law’.

In the Brave New Britain, some are now more equal than others and a society
is emerging where pluralism is disappearing and along with it, freedom of religion,
freedom of speech and freedom of thought. State approved indoctrination within the schools
is now going to be backed up by the law, which in effect bans all other points of view.

It is ironic that Mrs Higgs was accused of holding Nazi-like beliefs by a school
which is using Nazi-like authoritarian methods (kangaroo courts, anonymous complainants,
transgression of state ideology) to impose its own exclusive ideology.

David rounds out his piece with a similar lament which we read yesterday by Dr. Ashenden…
the real help in this mad mad world of ours is going to have to come from the Chruch.

But what of this Chruch of ours—this global community of believers?

“The church needs to be united on this and I realise how difficult that
is when so many churches have sold out to progressive ideology.
It speaks volumes that Steve Chalke, in light of this case,
not only warned that churches who do not accept this ideology face prosecution,
but also suggested that even expressing pastoral concern or praying for people with
gender confusion or unwanted same-sex attraction was “psychologically abusive”.
In these times of moral confusion,
those of us who love the Lord and want to stand on his word need to stick together.

Christians Are Now Being Punished For What Others Think – CT