The Lord works in mysterious ways....

The BBQ Pit
1

Okay. While I don’t generally enjoy seeing my favorite famous athletes thank God for their victories (frankly, I think God, if such a thing exists, has better things to worry about than who wins the World Series), I can usually deal with it with a minimum of eye rolling.

Then I saw yesterday’s Olympic Track and Field trials.

As those of you who follow sports know, the big competition in the 200 meter dash was between Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson. Both of them were pretty much shoo-ins for first and second place. The battle was for who would get the final qualifying spot. As Michael Johnson rounded the turn, he pulled up with what turned out to be a horrible cramp in his left hamstring area. He had to be wheeled off the track. A few meters later, Greene pulled up as well. This left the field wide open for John Capel to win.

So at the end of the race, the reporters were there to interview the victorious Capel, who said something that basically sums up like this.

“Last night, I got on my knees and prayed to God to help me through this. God came through.”

Yeah, you stupid fuck! God sure came through for you, eh? God did a wonderful job of INJURING THE TWO GUYS WHO WOULD HAVE KICKED YOUR ASS!

The reporter, trying to be fair, asked Capel if he saw the injuries occur. Capel responded by saying that he didn’t see them at first, but he looked at the Jumbotron as he crossed the finish line, and that’s when he saw Greene and Johnson had pulled up. So basically, Capel was thanking God for two of his competitors getting injured. And at that point, he didn’t even know that neither injury was too serious. I, for example, thought Johnson badly hurt himself when I saw that he was wheeled off the track.

So thank you, John Capel. Yesterday was a victory for good Christians everywhere.

Putz.

2

No, no, no. I didn’t see it that way at all. I thought he was just thankful that the tiny lactic acid darts that were shot into the legs of the front runners by his partners in evil were on the mark, that’s all.

3

Drain,
I had to smile when I read your OP. It reminded me of a religion prof. I had in college. He made the very same point you have. Your athlete would argue that his prayers were meant as a way of gaining strength for himself, to do the best he was capable of doing outside of how the competitors performed. It does sound like asking God to take sides, doesn’t it? And that’s pretty silly when you think about it. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one God overlooks in favor of someone else.
This prof used to tell the story of a man he knew who asked God each morning for the wisdom to choose the right tie. That’s right. A tie. And the prof said that he had always figured God had better things to worry about. I have to agree on that one.
Prayer, if one believes in it or the God addressed, is a personal thing…in my thinking anyway…used for expression of anger, frustration, thanks or love. I don’t own God. I don’t ask God to stop and get some groceries for me. I’d never dream of praying to God to give me something. But that’s just me. Like I said, it’s a personal thing. But when a person makes public the contents of a prayer…then it changes that personal aspect. It does somehow sound like the person is saying that God favored them. I’ve felt favored many times…but not due to anything special about me. And I certainly wouldn’t want to think that anyone else suffered of felt apart from their belief because I gained.

4

So who qualified? Does this mean that you will be fielding what you consider to be a second rate team in Sydney?

That would truly bite, if we are going to beat you I would like it to be because it was your best against our best.

I’ll be watching the British Grand Prix next month when Bailey, Surin, and Greene face off. This should be quite the race with three of the fastest men of all time face off. A prequel to the Olympics I would think.

5

It’s when boxers thank God, right after they’ve knocked sombodey’s liver out of their nostril’s that cracks me up.

“Champ, that was quite an upper-cut you hit Johnson with in the fourth. How did you feel when you saw his head go rolling across the ring?”

“First, of all I’d like thank my holy savior Jesus Christ, and my lord God, in the holy kingdom of heaven, for granting me the strength and moral fortitude, to see me through on my rightous path to glory. …”

Yeah, right. Turn the other cheek, unless its sanctioned by the WBC.

If there was an omniscient, all-powerful God, he ought chuck down a couple lightning bolts as soon as one of these dickheads even utters his name.

6

If God had turned Johnson and Greene into pillars of salt so that Capel could win, now that would have been something.

7

The aforementioned Capel, and two dudes I’ve never heard of.

Looks that way. Praise the Lord!

8

when are people going to stop using some lords name to excuse or glorify their actions? a lord can not grant you strenght to do more than you were created for, not in the physical area anyway.

it is true that faith strengthens both spirit and body, so the stronger belive you have in the force that maintains and operates your body (yourself in my opinion) that much stonger both your body and spirit will become. so from my point of view they are accually not thanking god for giving them the strengh, but they are thanking themselves.

religion is a wonderful thing somebody said (cant remember who, so i guess it was i who said it). you do not have to belive in anything, just think. because if you think you create…and thats how the world was created, thats how capel managed to beat greene and johnson and thats why no boxer has got the same god.

bj0rn

9

Notice how nobody complains about deities when they fail?

“I would’ve made a touchdown. But Jesus made me fumble!”

10

So you saw that fight last night between Hit Man and Tomato Can too.

TC - “First, of all I’d like thank my holy savior Jesus Christ, and my lord God, in the holy kingdom of heaven, for causeing Hit Man to turn his ankle and could not continues, so I could win this (insert three letters here)Title.”

11

When I saw the title, I thought maybe you were going to post that all of a sudden your hair got really easy-to-style and you french-braided it in 3 1/2 minutes this a.m.!

sigh

12

Ah, so you also saw the Tyson-Savarese fight, a 38-second fight (during which Tyson knocked the ref to the floor when he stepped between the boxers to stop the fight) after which Tyson expressed a desire to fight Lennox Lewis. Tyson concluded his speech, during which he pledged to kill Lewis and eat his children, with, “Praise to Allah!”.

Allah works in mysterious ways, apparently even through cannibalism.

13

I was watching that fight, but unfortunately I didn’t see it.

“Ding, ding.”
“The fight is underway.”

<hmm, I wonder if there any honey-mustard pretzels left in the cupboard>

“Ding, ding.”
“I WANT TO EAT YOUR CHILDERN!!!”

Now that’s entertainment!

14

Well, if this guy actually is favored by God, maybe we should pick on him like we did the teacher’s pet in school.

15

Of course Drain it wasn’t God who caused Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson to get hurt it was…well I’ll get to that in a bit.

First, let’s look at the evidence.

  1. Marcus Greene and Michael Johnson are the topped ranked people in their distance events in the world. What else do they have in common? They are Americans.

  2. Who would stand to benefit the most if they don’t compete in the Olympics. Easy another country.

  3. Where are these two athletes achievements scorned the most? Yup, the same country alluded to above.

  4. Who could do such a dastardly deed and not be suspected of it?

The answer is obvious…it’s Canada. I’ll admit it, our spy agency isn’t concerned with protecting our borders from intruders, or making sure the country isn’t invaded by forein spys. It only exists to gain revenge for Donovan Bailey. After all, Marcus Greene is now ranked 1st in the world in the 100 M usurping Donovan Bailys position and there was that whole ugly incident when Michael Johnson unjustly claimed to be the fastest human in the world.

The facts speak for themselves. sometimes the conspiracy nuts ARE correct.

Submitted for your consideration:
Keith

16

back in college, a friend of mine who was blind would have me read his letters for him (I say this so you understand that I would Never, Never, Never, have a friend like this). This woman wrote to him:
“God saw that I needed a car, so God put a man into my life that gave me a car. But it needed tires, too, so God put some one in my life to give me tires. Isn’t God Great?” Yea, you ARE the absolute center of God’s universe.

So, this is NOT a new phenomenon. It’s always struck me as odd, as well, to hear sports figures “I know God was with us on the football field today” So, what? God’s a Wolverine Fan??? Oh well, yet another reason I don’t watch sports interviews…

17

Okay, we’ve been discovered and might as well fess up.

We were so afraid of Greene and Johnson running in the olympics that we used a newly developed super secret weapon to cause muscle cramps during this race. It wasn’t hard to slip a little into their food prior to the race.

What with Bailey having his best year since Atlanta and Greene… well… kinda sucking what else could we have done?

In all truth I would hate to have our guys win because yoy guys were running the second string.

18

Damn it. Quit making me laugh. I really have to pee, but thought I’d read one last thread before I head off. It hurts.
::skulking::

19

I did not see this telecast, so maybe something was missed in the translation.

However, from what you said-

May I respectfully submit that praying to God to help you through something, and thanking him for doing so is a whole lot different from thanking him for causing injury to your apparently superior competitors in order that you should win?

Scotti

20

I always get a kick out of Drain’s posts on the Christians. I can’t remember when I have seen someone so intrigued by the Christian faith.

I didn’t see or read about the interview, only through Drain’s post. But did the guy say that he prayed his fellow atheletes would fail? Or was it that he just prayed he would get through it and do good?

Ya know, you seem to be damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If you are a Christian then if you give thanks you are damned, if you are a Christian and don’t give thanks, you are damned. But it does seem to help to always have your fellow beings nipping at your heels as a reminder.