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Most of my congregation knows from references I've made over the years that I am a devoted sports fan. Ever since I was a youngster,
sitting with my dad watching football on TV, I've had "my teams" -- the Rams, the Dodgers and the Bruins. On rare occasions I have even gone to the games, and there, like everyone around me, I've participated in cheering on the players. That has always seemed to me perfectly reasonable behavior -- it is, after all, recreation -- and, in the last analysis, it's just a game. There are limits, of course, to acceptable behavior in the stands -- I never could get into booing and screaming epithets at the other side, or at the referees and umpires. Starry-eyed idealist that I may be, I have always believed in good sportsmanship.
What does it mean to be your brother's keeper? Lessons from the Cleveland kidnappings