Anyone who has watched any of the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer matches being played in South Africa can attest to multiple occasions where referees and/or referee assistants (linesmen) bungled decisions on goals and offside players. It definitely cost England a fighting chance to make it to the quarter-finals, and almost forced the U.S.A. out in the group stage.
Have a look again at Lampard's clear goal in the 39th minute (38'18"):
Jiminy Cricket... One of the cutest little insects in all of Disney's Universe.
However, Jiminy Cricket is no ordinary cricket. He is not merely one of those crickets outside your bedroom window keeping you up all night!
No!
Jiminy Cricket is "Lord High Keeper of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, Counselor in Moments of Temptation, and Guide along the Straight and Narrow Path." This is the elaborate title given to Jiminy by the Blue Fairy when she chose him as Pinocchio's conscience.
Speaking of another cricket... That is "cricket," the game. You know! The one with the bat and ball, and 22 players fighting to control the bat and ball while 2 other guys called umpires try to keep order...
Well, it seems that the ICC (International Cricket Council) and the CSA (Cricket South Africa) would like to play Jiminy Cricket in the game of cricket!
Herschelle Gibbs, batsman for the South African national cricket team (Proteas), made a comment about some unruly spectators in the first cricket test between South Africa and Pakistan.
Apparently, and correct me if I am wrong, he called them a "bunch of animals."
Now, to the ICC and the CSA, that was a racist remark! If it was Australia playing here and Gibbs made those remarks about Australian supporters that were white, then no-one would even have flinched! But, unfortunately, the spectators in question are non-white. Therefore, almost any comment made in anger about such non-white spectators may be seen as racial slurs!
The fact is that I have called some people a "bunch of animals" too! And, lo and behold, they were non-whites too! But, then some of them were whites!
It is quite common to say that people are like animals when they act like animals. We see this animal-like behaviour especially in soccer. I know of no sport except soccer, where the supporters of clubs have been banned from games in Europe when their clubs are playing other clubs in Europe. It has happened with regard to English clubs playing in Europe. And, if I am not mistaken, it happened to more than one English club, more than once.
When Muslim militants in the Middle East capture people and behead them on video for worldwide distribution, you bet I am going to call them a "bunch of animals."
The point is, a comment like Gibbs' might not have been racial at all! Such a comment may or may not have been racist. The fact is that the ICC and the CSA claim to read a person's mind and know the condition of that person's heart! Oh my! How godlike they claim to be!
Are they now going to become the "thought" police too?! It is one thing to castigate a cricket player for what he says, but to claim to know what he meant when saying it is altogether a different matter!
Further, what a person says in a private conversation has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else. That again brings back the idea of the "thought" police!
What Gibbs said to his team mates was picked up by the stumps microphone. His conversation was not meant for the microphone and neither was it meant to be part of the broadcast. That means that it was an intrusion into a private conversation Gibbs had with his team mates! It was simply unfortunate that the microphone was so close!
Now, had he meant it as a racial slur, then it certainly was wrong to do so!
Yet, the fact of the matter is that it was said in a private conversation overheard by a bunch of overzealous teeny-bopper-like tattle-tails; and, unless Gibbs admits to the racist quality of the statement he made, the ICC, nor the CSA could punish him for making a racist comment, since they have no proof that it was racist!
It simply amazes me how political parties and other bodies such as the ICC and the CSA try through political means to rid the planet of racism.
They create endless laws to prevent racism, but to many people those laws mean nothing. Sure, these laws are good, and we need some artificial way to at least create obstacles against the advancement of racism. Many people will not climb over these obstacles in the obvious way, and so, in a sense, it would seem that there is racial harmony.
However, the problem with many laws against racism, is that they become racist themselves! What usually happens is that laws are passed that now simply advance the previously disadvantaged. Thus, racism all over again!
Racism cannot be done away with politically! It is a moral matter of the heart, and unless people have changed hearts, the racism will continue!
This last Saturday, October 07, 2006, the last of the "For Marriage" marches was held in Pretoria, South Africa.
As I wrote in my previous post concerning this march, it amazes me that people can still have this it-won't-make-a-difference attitude.
Well, it doesn't amaze me therefore that there were only about 300 people that participated in the march. At least, these it-won't-make-a-difference Christians stuck to their defeatist worldview and didn't come to the march.
Here is a city of about 1.3 million people and only 300 participated in this march! My guess is that almost all churches were informed about this march. There are at least 2 mega churches in the city (2,000+ members). Both of these have more than 5,000 members. I am a member of one of these, and have been since 1986. I had a look around at the people at the march and recognised 11 people from my church. I have to add that of these 11, 9 were there because of political affiliation to the ACDP. That means that my church had only 2 people there!
I wonder why there were so few from my own church? My guess is because NOT one of our 24 pastors was there. Yes, you read correctly! We have a church with about 24 pastors and not one of them came to the march! I suppose if the pastors don't lead, the sheep won't follow!
From the other 5,000+ church at least the head pastor was there. However, his denomination (supposedly Reformed in theology), made it clear on national Christian radio that they do not support these marches.
What will these men and women who did not stand up for Biblical marriages in the public arena tell their children one day when they are asked why they did not march? "Dad, did you not care enough about my future to march against evil?" "Am I not worth marching for?" "Do you love your sport more than you love me?" "Am I not even worth a day's wages?"
Some parents saw their children marching but were unwilling to march themselves! What kind of a message does this send to our children? That we are not willing to stand up for what is righteous? "Backbone, oh backbone! Where art thou?"
It all comes down to priorities and worldview. The priorities can only be in order when there is a proper Biblical worldview! A correctly applied Biblical worldview will make adjustments to priorities, so that other things like sport and money and personal welfare will not stand in the way of our battle for a righteous government who would be willing to enact righteous laws.
I kind of asked a rhetorical question as to why not one of our church's pastors was there and the answer from someone was that the pastors are tired. Too tired to stand up for what is right? I wonder what Paul would say in situation like that? Paul was shipwrecked and left for dead 3 times and so many more terrible things happened to him. Yet, our pastors are tired!
It seems to me that the church is in a coma or at least not conscious at the moment and is in real need of resuscitation! What will it take for the church in South Africa to be willing in the day of God's power? Oh, yes! The church is waiting for some mystical wind to blow over them to give them some sort of supernatural power! Until then, it is business as usual.
These Christians that are unwilling to stand up for righteousness in the political arena are the typical "couch" Christian. They are the armchair Christians. They sit and watch and have lots of comments to the team playing, but are unwilling to participate.
I suppose that when all "hell" breaks loose around us, these same people will say, "It won't make a difference!"
Like I said before, and I say it again, when 30 million Christians do nothing, I guess, then "it won't make a difference!"
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
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