Power Soccer: My Initial Impressions

As some of you might be aware, I spent last weekend at a national power wheelchair soccer tournament near Indianapolis, Indiana. While my team did not quite have the success we were looking for, this is the fifth time my team has made the journey to nationals, and I was reflecting a little bit on this entire experience, so I figured I would write it out for you all week.

I started playing power soccer during the spring of my freshman year in college. I was sitting at Ben & Jerry’s (what else do you eat in Vermont?), and a man came up to me to tell me about a new team that was forming in Burlington. I was naturally interested given my passion for sports, but I didn’t really know what to make of this particular sport.

In my experience, adaptive sports tended to be kind of like watered-down able-bodied sports. I imagined one of those oft-parodied sports where everyone gets a trophy no matter what. I am far too competitive for that type of system.

“I want to enjoy the victory when I earn it, and I want to have motivation to play better that inevitably follows a defeat.”

Consequently, I didn’t know what I was necessarily getting myself into, but I decided to attend practice the following Saturday. I didn’t really have any equipment, and I didn’t even know what the equipment was beyond what I saw on a few videos I watched on YouTube, so I went in largely blind. I figured I would give it a try for one week, and if I didn’t like it, there was obviously no obligation to ever return.

Upon entering the gym, one thing certainly struck me as odd. It was strange to be in a gym with several other individuals in power wheelchairs. I live in a rural town. In my lifetime, I do not believe there has ever been another power wheelchair user at our public school. During my time in high school in a slightly larger town of approximately 8000 people, I was the only power wheelchair user there for those four years. Even when I went to doctor’s appointments, maybe I sat in the waiting room with another power wheelchair user, but that is clearly a different kind of situation than what I was presented with in this gymnasium.

I found myself in a gym with power wheelchair users who were brought together to share an experience with me. We did not coincidentally happen to be in the same place at the same time like a doctor’s office. Instead, we were brought together to play a sport as a unit. We were brought together to work for a common purpose. I still didn’t really know what type of sport I was getting myself into on the first encounter, but simply the experience of having several people together in diverse yet comparable situations who were brought together for a purpose was the first thing that stood out to me about power soccer.

I have recently written about the power and importance of community, and that is one thing that drew me the first time I attended power soccer. Just like any other sports team, we were there for a purpose, and to the credit of my teammates, I discovered we were all there to win. My fears about moving into a sport where you receive a trophy just for showing up were unfounded. I found a group of individuals who immediately wanted to learn about the sport and become as good as we were capable of becoming. This made me want to come back for a second, third and hundreds more practices. That is why I still go back today.

Photo credit to my friend Ashley!

Book Review: A Practical Guide to Culture by John Stonestreet and Brett Kunkle

A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today’s World, written by John Stonestreet and Brett Kunkle, was published in 2017 by David C Cook. I was given a PDF of this book by the author in return for writing this post and providing my honest review.

I am not a parent, but if I had children, I might have a hard time teaching them how to navigate difficult cultural waters. Let’s face it, there are plenty of things in the world today that are at odds with our Christian worldview, and working through those issues with young people is a challenge to say the least. This is the niche that Stonestreet and Kunkle are attempting to fill. They argue that, “People make culture and are, in turn, shaped by culture, but equating them with culture is wrong and can even be dangerous” (34-35). Because of this dynamic, it is important for Christians to first and foremost recognize what underlies culture. Because culture is something that we create, and ought to create consistent with the mandate God gave to Adam and Eve, we need to be very intentional about what we produce and consume.

For example, they speak to the creation of a culture of life in the Roman Empire that developed because of Christians taking action to prevent evil (46-47). In Rome, it was culturally acceptable to put unwanted children out in the elements to die. Christians could not accept this however, so they began rescuing these children and adopting them into their own families in a true demonstration of charity and love.

However, they go on to tell an even more remarkable part of this story. Because female children were less desirable, most of these children that were left to die were female. They were raised by Christian families, but the Romans who did not want these girls eventually wanted wives for their sons. They had to come to the Christian families, so many Roman boys converted to Christianity as they were pursuing these young women.

I chose to highlight this one story out of many I could have chosen because this seems to be the approach that Stonestreet and Kunkle want to apply to a wide variety of issues including pornography, the hookup culture, racial tension and many more. It is not just enough for them to say that certain things are bad. Obviously, the Roman cultural practice of exposing these infants to the elements was evil. However, Christians did not just call out that evil; they did something about it. They took positive steps to redeem culture and demonstrate their Christian love in an environment where Christians were not the most favorably viewed people. Because of those actions, there were consequences that they probably never dreamed of at the beginning, but the culture was transformed because they reached out in love. God knew what was going on even if the individuals did not.

Passivity is something that Stonestreet and Kunkle cannot accept.

“‘Though fallen, God’s creation still proclaims His grandeur, kindness, and goodness. And human activity, such as buildings, growing, selling, inventing, cleaning, or any other work we do, should be seen as God’s work’ (62).”

We are not escapists; Christians ought to be actively involved in redeeming this world. Again, to go back to Roman example, Christians could have simply been outraged by the Roman practice of exposure, but they went a step further to try and redeem the situation. They didn’t let a bad situation remain bad, but they found a way to improve the world around them.

Yes, there is competition in the world today that tries to lessen our effectiveness. Stonestreet and Kunkle outline the inherent dangers of the information age and the influence that sometimes bad information found online can have on developing minds. They recognize that there are places that answers can be found relatively easily, but not every answer is the right answer, so they encourage Christians to very intentionally help young people develop Christian worldviews. It is important for young people to be able to know not only what Christianity is but also why it matters.

That is probably the most important take away you will get from this book. Stonestreet and Kunkle go to great lengths to explain that Christians view the world in a different way than people of other faith commitments. A distinctly Christian worldview is going to cause people to act in certain ways. When they act in these ways they are going to create culture as outlined above. The type of culture that develops is almost always going to be consistent with the worldview that it comes out of. Therefore, it is vitally important as adults to make sure that future generations understand the information in this book. They need to know how to present a Christian perspective on important issues or else they are going to be swept away with popular culture that is developed by alternative worldviews. That would indeed be tragic for the future of Christianity, so books like this provide a rallying cry to remind each one of us of the importance of the culture that we are instilling in our children or young people in our lives.

Senator Bernie Sanders Responds to My Letter Regarding Russell Vought

I previously wrote a blog post where I shared a letter I wrote to the office of my Senator, Bernie Sanders. I was very concerned about his view of Christians after his unconstitutional line of questioning to nominee Russell Vought. You can read my letter here, and I promised that if Senator Sanders responded, I would publish his response in full for your evaluation and consideration. I truly do appreciate that I did receive a response that does seem to be more than a form letter. I want to make sure that I express my thanks to Senator Sanders for that without a doubt.

I will just say preliminarily that this letter itself is unfortunately not a great response because it does not at all admit that what he did was wrong. He seems to be implying that the many people who were upset over this simply misunderstood his line of questioning. I'm not going to go off on that tangent here, but if you agree with me, I do have a petition you can sign asking for an apology to the nominee for the unconstitutional application of a religious test. Please sign it and share it.

Here is the unabridged response I received today which, again, I thank Senator Sanders for.

Dear Mr. Schmoll:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about my questioning of Russell Vought during a Senate Budget Committee hearing. I am sorry to hear that you found my questions offensive, or biased against Mr. Vought’s religion. That was certainly not my intention.

As you know, President Trump nominated Mr. Vought to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. In this role, Mr. Vought would oversee hundreds of federal employees. My chief concern was with how Mr. Vought would supervise these employees, given his previous remarks criticizing a professor at Wheaton College for expressing solidarity with Muslims. 

I understand that many Christians share Mr. Vought’s view of salvation, and that it is an article of faith for them. I thought Mr. Vought had crossed a line, however, with the inflammatory language he chose to use about Muslims. As Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, it is my duty to ensure that, if confirmed, he would treat OMB employees fairly and without prejudice as to their religious beliefs. In my view, his past statement cast doubt on his ability to carry out that critical part of his potential job.

It was not my intention to criticize Mr. Vought’s faith. I fully agree that we must uphold freedom of religion, as expressed by both the First Amendment and Article VI’s ban on religious tests for government office. 

Thank you again for contacting me, and please feel free to stay in touch about this or any other subject of interest to you.  For up-to-date information on what I am working on, please sign-up for my e-newsletter, the Bernie Buzz, at http://sanders.senate.gov/buzz/.

Sincerely,

BERNARD SANDERS
United States Senator

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Book Review: The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher

The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, written by Rod Dreher, was published in 2017 by Penguin Publishing Group.

It is rather obvious that America has transitioned into a post-Christian nation. There are a few options of how Christians can handle this shift.

“‘Could it be that the best way to fight the flood is to . . . stop fighting the flood? That is, to quit piling up sandbags and to build an ark in which to shelter until the water recedes and we can put our feet on dry land again?’ (12, Kindle Edition).”

This is the entire premise of The Benedict Option. Modeled conceptually after the monastic community of St. Benedict, Dreher suggests that it is more important for Christians to maintain a distinct identity and ride out the storm. This is not a surrender, but it is an intentional decision to make sure that Christianity survives, and he believes the best way to do that is to internally reinforce Christian communities. “Recognizing the toxins of modern secularism, as well as the fragmentation caused by relativism, Benedict Option Christians look to Scripture and to Benedict’s Rule for ways to cultivate practices and communities” (18, Kindle Edition).

The obvious question you probably relates to the practicality of such a project. After all, there seems to be less and less room in society for orthodox Christianity. Dreher fully recognizes that secular man has moved away from the conception that Christian doctrine matters at all. He quotes Brother Ignatius, a monk living in the Norcia monastic community in Italy who points out, “’The best defense is offense. You defend by attacking,’ Brother Ignatius said. ‘Let’s attack by expanding God’s kingdom—first in our hearts, then in our own families, and then in the world. Yes, you have to have borders, but our duty is not to let the borders stay there. We have to push outward, infinitely’” (73-74, Kindle Edition).

This makes the project seem much more achievable. We first need to get our own lives in order. Dreher is not suggesting that everyone becomes a monk by any means, but he is suggesting that we need to intentionally think about our lives and what we do. We need to make sure that our own lives are evidence of right priorities and submission to God’s order. Once we do that, then we grow to our families and beyond. While we are focusing on our families and our local communities, we build institutions. Specifically, our churches need to reclaim their historical role of standing out in the world for goodness. “As times get uglier, the church will become brighter and brighter, drawing people to its light” (117, Kindle Edition).

Once individual lives and churches are functioning appropriately, and often times working together across denominational lines whenever possible, Dreher believes that Christian education is necessary to counter the narrative of secular education in America. As the product of public education and a public university, I do not know that the situation is quite as bleak as Dreher suggests on this chapter, but I do take his point without a doubt that, “the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake has been slowly separated from the pursuit of virtue” (148, Kindle Edition). As I have studied in a Christian university for my MA as well as my current PhD, I will say that I feel like I receive a more complete education when the pursuit of virtue is intertwined with the pursuit of knowledge. Christian schools do that very well, and I certainly appreciate the point he makes.

Ultimately, Dreher summarizes The Benedict Option by characterizing both what it is and is not. “The Benedict Option is not a technique for reversing the losses, political and otherwise, that Christians have suffered. It is not a strategy for turning back the clock to an imagined golden age. Still less is it a plan for constructing communities of the pure, cut off from the real world. To the contrary, the Benedict Option is a call to undertaking the long and patient work of reclaiming the real world from the artifice, alienation, and atomization of modern life” (236, Kindle Edition).

This book is vitally important for Christians to consider. Historical Christianity has excelled when, even in hostile environments, Christians live like Christians. As at times become more difficult and it is harder to be a Christian in name only, those who stand for the name of Christ are going to need to return to Biblical truth. Not only that, but they need to build institutions to help the community and future generations carry on this great tradition. We are seeing an imminent flood, but if we start building the Ark right now, we will be able to survive the storm. Through the beauty of God reflected in the Christian life in the Christian community, we will help people searching for meaning amidst modernity and present an attractive alternative to so many bankrupt worldviews.

Book Review: Apologetics and the Christian Imagination by Dr. Holly Ordway

Apologetics and the Christian Imagination: An Integrated Approach to Defending the Faith, written by Dr. Holly Ordway, was published in 2017 by Emmaus Road Publishing. I was given a Kindle review copy of this book in exchange for the writing of this post and providing my honest opinion. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, Dr. Ordway was my faculty advisor while I was pursuing my MA in Apologetics at Houston Baptist University.

This book asks a question, “What is the role of the imagination in Christian apologetics?” Of course, unpacking this question requires understanding how these terms are being used. Apologetics is defined in the rather traditional way of a defense of the Christian faith, but Dr. Ordway proposes that rationality in and of itself is not enough to provide a holistic defense of Christianity.

“‘Reason and imagination are twin faculties, both part of human nature— and both given to us by God our Creator!— that, together, allow for a fuller grasp of the truth’ (Kindle Locations 260-262).”

This highlights one of the main strengths of this book right from the beginning. Apologetics can sometimes become simply the realm of memorizing lists of evidences for the resurrection or trying to remember the exact construction of a logical proof defending the existence of a creator. These reasonable approaches are vitally important, but as Dr. Ordway points out, the imagination needs to come into consideration as well.

Before proceeding, it is important to realize how this book defines the word imagination. It is used in the more traditional, medieval sense as opposed to the way it is used in our modern vernacular. Dr. Ordway is very careful to point this out in her text itself and clarify the difference, but just from the title of the book, it might be possible for some readers to misunderstand what this book is actually going to be about. Dr. Ordway cites CS Lewis who wrote that, “Reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition” (Kindle Locations 338-339).

Equipped with this understanding of imagination in the appropriate contextual sense, the reader is then brought through journey that seeks to show apologists how to bring meaning to the world through our apologetic interactions. A list of facts in and of itself might be reasonable, but until the audience understands why those facts are important, they are not really going to care very much about remembering those pieces of information or applying them to their lives. Dr. Ordway writes, “If someone can find the idea of the supernatural to be meaningful— an idea that can be grasped, that is worth grasping— then, and only then, is the question ‘Is it true?’ significant” (Kindle Locations 566-568).

Using this concept that reason and the imagination must go hand-in-hand, Dr. Ordway proceeds to take on some traditional hot topics in Christian apologetics and shows how the imagination can help to address these questions. For example, in the chapter on pain and doubt, the presentation of stories and actual personal accounts is brought to the forefront. “We need to tell stories that show our need for rescue and redemption, and that there is no place so low, no state of weakness too profound, no state of desperation so deep that God cannot find us and rescue us” (Kindle Locations 1938-1940). The temptation for someone like me is to dive right into a logical proof as to why the existence of God and the existence of evil are not logically incompatible in the style of Alvin Plantinga.

Dr. Ordway suggests a different approach. It is important to identify with our audience, and it is important to meet people where they are at in times of suffering. Stories communicate that meaning in a very special way. “When someone brings up the problem of evil, or the problem of suffering, our first priority should be to recognize the reality of the problem and mourn with those who mourn. Only in the context of compassion will our arguments have real meaning” (Kindle Locations 1942-1945).

Overall, this is an excellent addition to your apologetics library. I am not a Roman Catholic, so I would point out that I was not able to connect as deeply to some aspects of this book as other readers might be able to, but this is obviously not a book that is limited to a Catholic audience. Any “mere Christian” will be able to benefit greatly from this book, but I do think that a Catholic audience will understand some illustrations more deeply than I did.

Dr. Ordway is a gifted communicator who, through this work, pointed out to me how important it is to remember the distinctively human aspects of our apologetic interactions. It can be tempting to memorize apologetic formulas and to try have the perfect argument for every situation, but that is not the way that people actually interact. People desire meaning, and our apologetic approach needs to embrace that.