July 9, 2010 | 5:16 pm

Cliff Lee likes that the last shall be first

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Cliff Lee, the former Cy Young winner who has dominated batters this season, striking out 89 while only walking 6, is leaving the Mariners for the Rangers. Yep, he’s heading from the worst team in his division to the best. This wasn’t lost on Lee, who sent this text message to an ESPN reporter:

“Just heard from [Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik],” Lee texted to ESPN The Magazine’s Amy K. Nelson. “It’s official. From last [place] to first.”

That inspired the quite enjoyable Christian reference that can be seen on the ESPN.com homepage.

July 9, 2010 | 2:46 pm

New ways to protest Israeli actions

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It appears the flotilla that attempted to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza was only the latest salvo in a new type of warfare against Israeli policies. Hamas and Hezbollah are picking up on the civil disobedience.

From the Wall Street Journal:

“When we use violence, we help Israel win international support,” said Aziz Dweik, a leading Hamas lawmaker in the West Bank. “The Gaza flotilla has done more for Gaza than 10,000 rockets.”

Hamas and Hezbollah, the Islamist movement in Lebanon that has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s, haven’t renounced violence and both groups continue to amass arms. Hamas still abides by a charter that calls for Israel’s destruction; Palestinian youths still hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers across the West Bank separation barrier. And the flotilla incident didn’t fall into conventional standards of peaceful protest: While most activists passively resisted Israeli soldiers, some on the boat where protesters were killed attacked commandos as they boarded, according to video footage released by Israel and soldiers’ accounts.

The incident triggered international condemnation and plunged Israel into one of its worst diplomatic crises in years. In response, Israel said it would take some steps to ease its blockade on the Gaza Strip.

After the incident, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on supporters to participate in the next flotilla bound for Gaza. Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of the Hezbollah politburo in Beirut, said it was the first time Mr. Nasrallah had forcefully and publicly embraced such tactics against Israel.

“We saw that this kind of resistance has driven the Israelis into a big plight,” he said. Organizers in Lebanon say they have two ships ready to sail, but no departure date has been set.

That line about Hamas et al. not renouncing violence is an important one. But the adjustments in strategy are interesting, at the least.

Read the rest here.

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July 8, 2010 | 11:27 am

LeBron Chronicles: Does God hate Cleveland?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The Sports Guy says it’s entirely possible:

If LeBron picks anyone other than the Cavaliers, it will be the cruelest television moment since David Chase ended “The Sopranos” by making everyone think they lost power. Cleveland fans will never forgive LeBron, nor should they. He knows better than anyone what kind of sports anguish they have suffered over the years. Losing LeBron on a contrived one-hour show would be worse than Byner’s fumble, Jose Mesa, the Game 5 meltdown against Boston, The Drive, The Shot and everything else. At least those stomach-punch moments weren’t preordained, unless you believe God hates Cleveland (entirely possible, by the way). This stomach-punch moment? Calculated. By a local kid they loved, defended and revered.

It would be unforgivable. Repeat: unforgivable.

I guess we’ll know for sure in less than eight hours.

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July 8, 2010 | 10:39 am

He really is God’s Gift

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Speaking of funny names, Jeff Eisenberg, a college friend and colleague, has an interesting story about a junior college basketball player making a real name for himself. And, yes, that is is real name:

Meet God’s Gift Achiuwa, a 6-foot-9 forward at Erie Community College who has already caught the attention of some high-profile Division I programs because of both his stellar play and unusual name. The Nigeria native’s father is a minister, so the first name he chose for his son is a reflection of the family’s devout religious beliefs.

“His name is the first thing that anyone asks about when they meet him,” Erie coach Alex Nwora said by phone. “Everyone thought it was a nickname or something, but that’s his real name. Fortunately, he’s a religious kid, so he likes it.”

See, he really is God’s Gift—unlike many other athletes who simply think they are.

Following all the unnecessary drama this past week, imagine if King James’ name started with God.

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July 7, 2010 | 1:08 pm

Cheap headline humor by way of Tyson Gay

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

At the risk of sounding like an adolescent, it seems to me that headline writers like making puns around track star Tyson Gay. Latest case, this headline from Reuters:

“Tired Gay succumbs to Dix in 200 meters.”

Hard to believe that was an innocent combination of words and not an intended double entendre. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the word “succumbs” in a sports headline.

I can’t even imagine how ultra-conservative American Family Association’s website, which once swapped “Homosexual” for Gay’s actual surname, would handle this.

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July 7, 2010 | 11:15 am

Dear God: There’s an app for that

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

This spring, the LA Times wrote a story about religious-themed iPhone apps. The New York Times took a second pass at this story, and did a much better job with it, starting wit the headline: “You Say God is Dead? There’s an App for That.”

An excerpt:

For religious skeptics, the “BibleThumper” iPhone app boasts that it “allows the atheist to keep the most funny and irrational Bible verses right in their pocket” to be “always ready to confront fundamentalist Christians or have a little fun among friends.”

(skip)

In a dozen new phone applications, whether faith-based or faith-bashing, the prospective debater is given a primer on the basic rules of engagement — how to parry the circular argument, the false dichotomy, the ad hominem attack, the straw man — and then coached on all the likely flashpoints of contention. Why Darwinism is scientifically sound, or not. The differences between intelligent design and creationism, and whether either theory has any merit. The proof that America was, or was not, founded on Christian principles.

Users can scroll from topic to topic to prepare themselves or, in the heat of a dispute, search for the point at hand — and the perfect retort.

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July 6, 2010 | 9:55 am

Mel Gibson: still racist; also crazy

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

What has happened to Mel Gibson?

He was the pride of Christians everywhere, and one of the biggeest stars in Hollywood. But then there was that Jews-are-responsible-for-all-the-pain-in-the-world drunken outburst. And now he’s calling his not-so-special lady friend the C-word and dropping N-bombs:

TMZ has confirmed ... Mel Gibson is caught on tape, screaming at his baby mama Oksana Grigorieva, “You look like a f*king pig in heat and if you get raped by a pack of ni**ers it will be your fault.”

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July 6, 2010 | 12:15 am

Falling from the heavens

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Church stunts gone bad.

Check out Daniel Tosh’s video breakdown here, here and here. He says that the girl lived and was fine, though it’s hard to believe that based on the degree to which her body bounced.

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July 5, 2010 | 8:22 am

The American kosher craze

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Audiolicious

Speaking of the Fourth of July, The New York Times had a delicious op-ed with the patriotic and Jewy headline of “Red, White and Kosher.” (I would have preferred “Red, White and Jew.”) In the op-ed, Sue Fishkoff recounted the linchpin moment in kosher cuisine, and looked at just how pervasive and diverse kosher offerings have become.

Of course, it started with a hot dog.

N 1972, a TV commercial changed the way Americans looked at kosher food. It showed Uncle Sam munching on a Hebrew National beef hot dog as a heavenly voice assures him it is free of the additives and byproducts present in lesser processed meats.

“We answer to a higher authority,” the voice proclaims. Trust us — we’re kosher.

That message resonated at a time when Americans were growing increasingly mistrustful of the government and were starting to worry about what dangerous hidden substances might be on their dinner plates. Today, a majority of Americans believe that kosher food is safer, healthier, better in general than non-kosher food. And they’re willing to pay more for it. Kosher is the fastest-growing segment of the domestic food industry, with bigger sales than organic. One-third to one-half of the food in American supermarkets is kosher-certified, representing more than $200 billion of the country’s estimated $500 billion in annual food sales, up from $32 billion in 1993.

Given that Jews make up less than 2 percent of the population, and most of them don’t keep kosher, it’s clear that the people buying this food are mostly non-Jews. While some consumers probably aren’t aware that their pasta or cookies are kosher, many are folks who believe that “higher authority” promise.

Fishkoff puts the Hebrew National commercial in the context of a new sense of American Jewish confidence following Israel’s successful defense in the Six Day War and the growing prosperity of American Jews. She also talks about how—no surprise here—Americans eat more hot dogs than any other people on the planet.

Personally, I’ve never been too fond of an all-beef Bruin Dog or the hallowed Dodger Dog. But they’re not kosher. Then again, neither am I.

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July 4, 2010 | 11:02 pm

Kagan on religious freedom

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day. Might I recommend the fireworks in Santa Barbara?

Now back in front of my computer, I’m catching up on the Elena Kagan hearings and some other interesting religion news I missed at the end of last week. Specifically, the Religion Clause blog picked up on what Kagan had to say about the First Amendment protections of religion and association.

Kagan said:

In general, I think, what both First Amendment clauses are designed to do - and this is the way in which they work hand in hand with each other - what they’re both designed to do is to ensure that you have full rights as an American citizen. You are a part of this country, no matter what your religion is, and to ensure that religion just never functions as a way to put people because of their religious belief or because of their religious practice at some disadvantage with respect to any of the rights of American citizenship. So, I think that that’s the sort of overall purpose of both parts of the amendment.

In other words: you should be neither burdened nor benefited because of your personal beliefs. Fair enough. But there is often a very fine line between benefited and burdened—and Kagan gave no hint as to how the Court should hit that moving target.

The Religion Clause also provides this link to the unofficial transcript.

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July 2, 2010 | 10:46 am

Missionaries: serve others or spread the gospel?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s been a good week here at The God Blog.

It started at the Biltmore Hotel on Sunday, when the Los Angeles Press Club named this blog SoCal’s best individually written blog for the second time in three years. Then today I landed my first column in the Wall Street Journal.

(The arc of my opinionating has been funny. I’ve now published three columns in my career. The first was an abysmal piece about getting rich in college for the UCLA Daily Bruin; the second, about Jewish financial scapegoating, ended up in the Christian Science Monitor last February; and today changes to American Christian missions landed me in the foreign fields of a paper way beyond my reading level.)

The focus of today’s column is that Christian missions have gone from spreading the gospel to serving those in need. These changes mere general cultural trends toward doing social justice work, but not prioritizing the need to get others to share your belief system.

An excerpt:

“At (1910) Edinburgh, people thought they were going to take over the world,” said C. Douglas McConnell, dean of Fuller’s School of Intercultural Studies in his opening remarks. “And now many of our students wonder if they should even try.”

Indeed, colonialism is dead (thankfully). But the term “missions” itself now carries with it a negative connotation, even in politically and theologically conservative circles. Christians today typically travel abroad to serve others, but not necessarily to spread the gospel.

While meaning well and certainly doing good, this form of outreach has allowed the pendulum to swing too far from 1910. Today, Christian missionaries need to balance both actions and words.

To be sure, humanitarian organizations that come from a Christian place – I discuss Invisible Children – are doing great work. And no one expects every organization that is either Christian or is fueled by Christian values to couch their service in the skin of evangelism. But when they don’t, the motivations behind their service are often missed:

Spreading Christianity through deeds alone aligns with a quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words.” But research suggests that non-Christians often miss the message without the words.

This reminds me of philanthropic challenges in the Jewish community. Lots of people want to donate to sexy, pet projects; no one wants to give money to keep up the community-run Jewish cemetery.

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July 1, 2010 | 10:58 pm

Sarah Silverman: Jewy but doesn’t know a lot of Jewy things

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Sarah Silverman is Jewish; she’s also pretty cute and definitely funny. The VideoJew Jay Firestone met up with Silverman last Friday, and did everything he could to keep it professional.

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