Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Born to lose and destined to fail

Born to lose and destined to fail

Last updated on: February 23, 2023 at 5:04 pm by Fred Clark

0 Comments

Born to lose and destined to fail 2023-02-23T17:04:12-05:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

• For political news from Florida we turn to the sports pages of a Pittsburgh newspaper: “Florida school district pulls children’s book about Roberto Clemente off shelves.”

A large Florida school district has pulled an illustrated children’s biography of Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente off its shelves to determine whether it is “developmentally appropriate for student use.” …

… Also removed was “Roberto Clemente: The Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates,” a 2005 book by Dormont’s Jonah Winter.

The 32-page book references racism Clemente sometimes endured.

“As a right-fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, (Clemente) fought tough opponents — and even tougher racism — but with his unreal catches and swift feet, he earned his nickname, ‘The Great One,’ ” a blurb for the book reads.

… “I make mention of the racism that Clemente encountered as a younger player,” Winter said. “I guess they banned it because they think it might make some white children uncomfortable. These are very strange times that we live in.”

Clemente spent his entire career with the Pirates and thus had 17 seasons of spring training in Florida, the same state where the story of his life is now deemed inappropriate for schoolchildren.

For the first seven years of his career, Roberto Clemente was not permitted to stay in the same hotel as most of the Pirates, nor to eat at restaurants in Florida with his white teammates. Even after he’d won batting titles and established himself as the leader and heart and soul of the team Clemente still had to start every season in segregation in the Jim Crow Florida that its current governor doesn’t want anyone to remember or to read about.

See earlier: “Spring training in black and white” and “‘‘The Soreno has politely said No’.”

• The Smithsonian offers its annual list of “Ten Dazzling Celestial Events to See in 2023.” The first item has already flown by (literally), but here’s hoping it won’t be cloudy out for all of the rest of these.

The dance between Jupiter and Venus next week comes just in time for driving-pallets-of-mulch-around-a-dark-parking-lot season, so that’ll be nice. Conjunctions are pretty.

• The impressive thing about The Onion is their ability to outrace reality, even if just barely. Here, for example, is America’s Finest News Source in a post published on Monday: “Evangelical Leaders Announce J.K. Rowling Finally Bigoted Enough That It’s Okay For Kids To Read About Witchcraft.”

And here, just three days later, is the Southern-Gothic-Presbyterian World magazine, “Are evangelical leaders as courageous as J.K. Rowling?”

World accompanies its piece with a photo of Rowling from the same event — same dress, same backdrop — as the photo in The Onion’s piece. The tone of the two pieces is also indistinguishable.

• Here’s the key bit from Katie Walsh’s Los Angeles Times review of the Calvary Chapel Jesus Revolution movie:

Unfortunately, despite the interesting history, the film itself is a dry, scattered slog, neutered of all the thorny, contradictory details of the real story. Give Lonnie Frisbee’s Wikipedia page a quick scan to see just how much material the filmmakers excised from his fascinating, troubled life.

It’s not easy to make Lonnie Frisbee’s life seem dull, but the auteurs of “faith-based” white evangelical cinema may be up to that task. Contrast that Wikipedia entry with Greg Laurie’s RNS movie-hyping op-ed on “The long strange trip of Lonnie Frisbee” and you’ll get a sense of how this film dodge’s the full story and the full person.

• Speaking of utopian religious movements … Naum at AZspot recently linked back to this 2013 piece from the Awl by Jacob Mikanowski, “Our Radical Future: Cults, Utopias and Rebellions of the 1890s.”

Yes, that piece is now 10 years old, but the apocalyptic is always timeless, and it’s a fascinating read.

• The title for this post comes from Social Distortion’s “Ball and Chain,” which has something of a Rescue-Mission revival vibe to it.

One could argue that “Ball and Chain” is, formally, a prayer — perhaps even a kind of “Sinner’s Prayer.” It might be addressed directly to God, or it might be a plea for the intercession of St. Johnny of Arkansas.

Anyway, I’m noting that here mainly as a reminder to myself that I need to further explore one big difference between the revivalism of Skid Row Rescue Missions and the 21st-century form of worship-centered revival experiences — the former had a clarity about what it was that needed repenting from which the latter seems to lack.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 21, 2023

Freely, freely you have received

Next Post

February 28, 2023 'Then'

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"https://uploads.disquscdn.c... Yes. I bought all of them several years ago. They're up all over my ..."

Rick

The possibility of possibility

"DnD and theatre were the two places I first met trans and gay peoples."

Hawker40

The possibility of possibility

"Yes. Lemme 'splain.For a lot of kids (12+, chiefly), D&D is one of the first ..."

Jim Roberts

The possibility of possibility

"My favorite, being a New York City resident, is the way the wingnuts screeched "Liberals ..."

WeWantPie

The possibility of possibility

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the Roman centurion who converted to Christianity in Acts 10?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Herod Felix Nicodemus Cornelius