BACK ONLINE... JIM ROME'S RADIO RUBBISH
Curt Schilling Espouses On His Christian Faith

I didn't have online access until today. I just moved into my new apartment in San Francisco yesterday. Only one day without broadband and I feel a little out of touch. The cable guy came in this morning, hooked up me, and I found over 300 emails (half newswires) and over 1000 pieces of spam in my Yahoo! account. So I have a lot of junk and no substance in my mailboxes.

Anyway, I was stuck in traffic today sitting on the 101 highway and starting listening to Jim Rome's radio show. I only heard him a few times before, but this was the first time I wanted to call in. The topic was on Curt Schilling using baseball and this World Series as a platform for his Christian faith. Jim Rome and many of the callers were basically criticizing Schilling for mentioning his faith during the press conferences.

Rome said such things as, "I think God has better things to do than to heal the ankle of some $10 million pitcher while some kid is starving in Ethopia... Does this mean that if God helps Schilling that He doesn't like helping people on the St. Louis Cardinals?... So if God helps you get a touchdown or win a game in the World Series and on other days you drop a pass or make an error, is He responsible for those things too?..."

Busy signal... dropped call... busy signal... not connecting... I was trying to call in because I was annoyed at such simplistic thinking. Not being a good example of a Christian, I wanted to get through and bring up some points for these idiots to think about. Do they complain about the Grammys when a fair amount of music artists "praise God" or "thank the Lord!" for their awards and talents? What is the big deal if Schilling says God helped him through his injury, which people are calling the "stuff of legends?"

Rome said that if all Schilling wanted to do was to give credit to God for helping him through his painful injury, then it is great and fine with him. If there was another intent, then Rome said that he had some issues with it (paraphrased above). Really, Jim? Why does Schilling need to check in with you or anyone else if he had some additional intent? Why is it when God or Christ is invoked in some speech people have problems with it? When people give credit to their parents or moms, it's cool but you can't mentioned God or Christ. I think if Schilling mentioned Buddha or Vishnu there wouldn't be any uproar.

"I think God has better things to do than to heal the ankle of some $10 million pitcher while some kid is starving in Ethopia..."

Jim, why confine God to your small brain? If you believed in God, I would assume he wouldn't be a weakass being but someone that is all-powerful and all-knowing. For this omnipotent and omniscient being, is it any problem for him to care about Schilling's ankle AND some boy's hunger in Ethopia? God isn't like Santa from your childhood where he is confined by space and time. He can deal the problems of billions at the same time... great or small.

And of course Schilling would praise and thank God for his success AND failures. That's what a Christian should do. That's what Barry Sanders did for years while on those lousy Detroit Lions teams. That's what David Robinson did for his entire career in the NBA. A joyful and grateful attitude in all situations is what these great role models in sports did throughout their careers.

Lastly, it's not about whose side God is on. Faith and religion is not a game, so get out of that context. If God helps heal Schilling, he's not rooting for the Bosox. He's helping a person He loves... and He loves everyone. He wasn't implying that God is on their side versus the Cardinals. Curt Schilling is just paying his respects. Not a big deal. Get over it, Rome.