I want to defend the proposition that, in its own way, the Tiger Woods scandal is as important as Kandahar and the Catholic Church. Leaving aside the question of whether we should shower condemnation on Woods ”” a hard question that I don’t purport to have a compelling answer to ”” one thing I feel sure of is that this Tiger Woods thing matters.

Why? Because it embodies some other things that matter. For example:

1) Monogamous marriage matters….

2) Monogamous marriage matters especially in parts of society where it is weakest….

3) Role models matter….

4) Role models matter for adults, kind of….

5) Moral sanction matters….

Read it carefully and read it all.

I have scrupulously avoided this topic because it sickens me, among many other reasons. But it does matter. Comments on this thread will be carefully watched, however. This is not an opportunity to get off topic, please. This is a chance to interact with a column and its specific arguments–KSH.

You simply must watch this video if you haven’t seen it–incredible!.

The five paper-clipped sheets that were slipped into a wire basket at the Van Nuys State Office Building looked no different from the other workers’ compensation claims filed by welders and cashiers. But this packet was different: it will almost certainly become a test case in considering National Football League teams’ liability for the dementia experienced by retired players.

The claim was filed by Dr. Eleanor Perfetto on behalf of her husband, Ralph Wenzel, contending that his dementia at 67 is related to his career as an N.F.L. lineman from 1966 to 1973.

California’s workers’ compensation system provides a unique, and relatively unknown, haven for retired professional athletes among the 50 states, allowing hundreds of long-retired veterans each year to file claims for injuries sustained decades before. Players need not have played for California teams or be residents of the state; they had to participate in just one game in the state to be eligible to receive lifetime medical care for their injuries from the teams and their insurance carriers.

About 700 former N.F.L. players are pursuing cases in California, according to state records, with most of them in line to receive routine lump-sum settlements of about $100,000 to $200,000. This virtual assembly line has until now focused on orthopedic injuries, with torn shoulders and ravaged knees obvious casualties of the players’ former workplace.

Read it all.

It’s a game we’ll talk about until we’re done talking about basketball. We’ll remember the sustained drama, as 70,930 fans shared the same tension-drenched air for more than two exhausting hours. We’ll marvel at the fact that the largest lead of the night was six points. And that it was a one-possession game for 31 of the 40 minutes. And that both teams attacked each other with a beautiful savagery.

“It was the toughest game we played all year,” Duke’s Jon Scheyer said. “I can’t imagine what those guys are feeling like. They gave everything they had, just like we did.”

We’ll talk about a different Duke team than Krzyzewski’s three other champions at Duke — less glamorous, more gritty. This team Krzyzewski never once called great all year — until the postgame locker room, when they had the championship nets to prove it.

But even more than the winners, we’ll talk about the losers. Because it was Butler that elevated this story to something unique, something special. It was Butler that lived up to a moment far beyond the reach of most schools of its ilk — a 4,200-student university right here in Indianapolis, with scant tradition, a modest budget and mid-major conference affiliation.

It was quite a game–read it all.

Read it all.

Columbia, South Carolina–Tony Dungy stood before more than 1,700 prisoners Tuesday, sharing a smile and message of hope that has become his life’s work.

The former NFL championship coach said he recently visited an inmate in Florida that he had ministered to nearly 10 years ago. The prisoner thanked Dungy for changing his mental and spiritual outlook.

“That,” Dungy said, “was a bigger thrill for me than winning the Super Bowl.”

Somehow wonderfully appropriate on Holy Week. Read it all.

A reverend, a rabbi and a scholar hike up a mountain ridge …

It sounds like the opening line of an unholy bar joke, not a spiritual warm-up for the beginning of Passover for Jews and Holy Week for Christians, leading toward Easter.

But these three believers say skiing off in winter cold, hiking in desert heat, even taking a senses-awake walk in the park can open you up, body and soul, to better appreciate these holy days of salvation and freedom.

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Men like [James] Naismith and [Luther ] Gulick sought to develop the whole person””mind, body and spirit””and the YMCA emblem, an inverted red triangle, symbolized their threefold purpose. As Gulick stated, “Christ’s kingdom should include the athletic world.” From their beginning in 1851, YMCAs on college and university campuses had tremendous participation nationwide. Close to 50,000 men were enrolled in YMCA college Bible studies by 1905. There were 1,000 men at Yale alone in 1909.

One notable characteristic that defined these college YMCAs””particularly those among the Ivy League schools””were their weekly “deputations,” or local mission trips. Groups of college students ministered to needy children in nearby urban neighborhoods and rural areas. These trips would last three or four days and included musical entertainment, sporting events and Christian instruction, both in the schools and from the pulpits of local churches. On a February 1911 trip to New Hampshire, 43 out of 70 boys enrolled at Kimbell Union Academy embraced the Christian faith. Weeks later at a church visit in London, N.H., the official deputation logs recorded an eyewitness account from Dartmouth student Cedric Francis (class of 1912): “One very touching case was where it was through the young boy of the family that the mother and father were led to Christ.”

This was the generation of the Student Volunteer Movement which sought to reach the world for Christ “in this generation.” Basketball served as an important evangelical tool for many during its first 50 years. In his 1941 book “Basketball: Its Origin and Development,” Naismith wrote, “Whenever I witness games in a church league, I feel that my vision, almost half a century ago, of the time when the Christian people would recognize the true value of athletics, has become a reality.”

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By some measures, the success of the Xavier men’s basketball team rests not with a sharpshooting guard or a ball-hawking forward. Rather, it rests largely with a 5-foot-4, white-haired 77-year-old nun not afraid to rap on dormitory doors or to call players before dawn to ask about missed classes or late assignments.

Xavier, a Jesuit university in Cincinnati, is entering the N.C.A.A. tournament seeded sixth in the West Region with a 24-8 record. But Sister Rose Ann Fleming is a perfect 77-0. Since she became the academic adviser for Xavier athletics in 1985, every men’s basketball player who has played as a senior has left with a diploma.

“Sometimes, she’ll schedule an appointment or an academic meeting right in the middle of practice,” said Xavier Coach Chris Mack, whose team will play Minnesota in the first round on Friday. “I’ll say, ”˜Sister, we have practice at 4.’ She’ll say, ”˜No, this is important.’ ”

Read it all.

By some measures, the success of the Xavier men’s basketball team rests not with a sharpshooting guard or a ball-hawking forward. Rather, it rests largely with a 5-foot-4, white-haired 77-year-old nun not afraid to rap on dormitory doors or to call players before dawn to ask about missed classes or late assignments.

Xavier, a Jesuit university in Cincinnati, is entering the N.C.A.A. tournament seeded sixth in the West Region with a 24-8 record. But Sister Rose Ann Fleming is a perfect 77-0. Since she became the academic adviser for Xavier athletics in 1985, every men’s basketball player who has played as a senior has left with a diploma.

“Sometimes, she’ll schedule an appointment or an academic meeting right in the middle of practice,” said Xavier Coach Chris Mack, whose team will play Minnesota in the first round on Friday. “I’ll say, ”˜Sister, we have practice at 4.’ She’ll say, ”˜No, this is important.’ ”

Read it all.

I enjoyed this–when you get closer to the top of the list you have the option of watching video of the goals also.

I enjoyed this–when you get closer to the top of the list you have the option of watching video of the goals also.

“Look at this place. Everyone is smiling,” said Robert Nonis of Vancover Island, blowing a long red horn with a Canadian flag dangling beneath it.

Mr. Nonis brought his son to Vancouver for the day to watch the gold-medal hockey game at an outdoor venue downtown.

He’ll be sad when the celebration ends.

“The Olympics have pulled everyone together,” he said, before tilting his head back, pursing his lips and blasting out another celebratory tune on his plastic horn.

Read it all.

WE may scoff at the idea that the Olympic Games have anything to do with the “endeavor to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace,” as the Olympic charter enshrines as its ideal. But at least nations across the world were able to put aside differences for two weeks of friendly competition in Vancouver.

A mundane achievement, perhaps, but it’s one that’s beyond the grasp of the Islamic world. The Islamic Solidarity Games, the Olympics of the Muslim world, which were to be held in Iran in April, have been called off by the Arab states because Tehran inscribed “Persian Gulf” on the tournament’s official logo and medals.

It’s a small but telling controversy. It puts the lie to the idea of the Islamic world as a bloc united by religious values that are hostile to the West. It also gives clues as to how the United States and its allies should handle two of their most urgent foreign policy matters: the Iranian nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Read it all.

With the Winter Games set to close Sunday night, you can almost hear the voices of Canadian officials saying, “We told you everything would work out.”

The Canadian team finished with the most gold medals, a result that didn’t seem possible after the Games’ first week. And to cap it with a gold medal in men’s hockey was a dream result for the host nation.

The overtime victory, 3-2, over the United States was a fitting culmination of these Games, in which Canada stood atop the podium more often that any other nation in Winter Olympics history and in which the United States ruled the overall medal count with a record total.

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We go to overtime. What a great game.

Watch it all–just a wonderful piece.

A wonderful photo from the winter Olympics.

It was more of a struggle than expected, but the United States men’s hockey team moved on to the semifinals of the Winter Olympics after a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Switzerland at Canada Hockey Place on Wednesday.

The U.S. will play the winner of tonight’s Finland-Czech Republic game on Friday at noon for the right to play for the gold medal Sunday.

The U.S. got its first goal from Zach Parise with 17:52 left in the game on a power play, batting in a loose puck in the right corner of the net just over Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller. The Anaheim Duck, one of three NHL players on the Swiss roster, was under pressure all day but lived up to his billing as one of the best in the world.

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Check it out.

Until Friday, when Tiger Woods stood up in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and apologized for his sexual infidelities, the American public confession was a Christian rite. From President Grover Cleveland, who likely fathered a child out of wedlock, to Ted Haggard, who resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after allegations that he had sex with a male prostitute, our politicians and preachers have bowed and scraped in Christian idioms. Jimmy Carter spoke of “adultery in my heart.” Jimmy Swaggart spoke of “my sin” and “my Savior.” In any case, the model derives from evangelical Christianity ”” the revival and the altar call. You confess you are a sinner. You repent of your sins. You turn to Christ to make yourself new.

Woods was caught in a multimistress sex scandal after Thanksgiving. In January Brit Hume, channeling his inner evangelist on Fox News Sunday, urged Woods to “turn to the Christian faith.” “He’s said to be a Buddhist,” Hume said. “I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith.” Woods in effect told Hume Friday thanks but no thanks.

Part of Woods’ carefully prepared statement followed the time-honored formula that historian Susan Wise Bauer has referred to as the “art of the public grovel.” Though he did not sob like Swaggart, Woods seemed ashamed and embarrassed. He took responsibility for his actions, which he characterized as “irresponsible and selfish.” He apologized, not just to his wife and children but also to his family and friends, his business partners, his fans, and the staff and sponsors of his foundation. And he was not evasive. Whereas President Clinton confessed in 1998 to having an “inappropriate” relationship with Monica Lewinsky and took potshots at the independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, Woods said, “I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame.”

But this was not your garden-variety confession. Though Woods spoke of religion, he did not mention Jesus or the Bible, sin or redemption. He gave us a Buddhist mea culpa instead.

Read it all.

The U.S. men’s hockey team held off the powerful host Canadians to earn a bye to Wednesday’s quarterfinals. It marks the first time the United States has beaten Canada in a men’s Olympic hockey game since 1960 in Squaw Valley, where the Americans stole a gold medal from the favored Canadians and Russians.

“I still think we’ve got a long way to go,” Team USA coach Ron Wilson cautioned. “There are some great teams out there.”

He cited Canada as a team he thinks is still the best in the tournament despite the American’s win, which forced the disappointed hosts into a qualifying game against Germany on Tuesday.

Wilson might be right.

Goalie Ryan Miller was just awesome. Read it all.

In addition to providing hospitality and programs at 25 different places in Metro Vancouver, the group is also supporting social justice initiatives in the city such as the memorial march for murdered and missing women and raising money for homeless people.

Some Vancouverites are uncomfortable with this mixing of religion and the Olympics. But the two have long been entwined, going right back to the origin of the Games themselves.

Back then, “there was no such thing as secular athletics,” says David Gilman Romano, director of Greek Archaeological Projects at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology.

His museum’s website notes that the ancient Games were part of a religious festival in honour of Zeus, the father of the Greek gods and goddesses. The name of the Games themselves comes from Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece and home to those same deities.

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Matthew Syed’s recent reflection on the extent to which Britain should exploit home advantage for the 2012 Olympics to maximize Team GB’s medal haul, made me wonder what Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic movement, would have thought about it all.

In a strategy called “Own the Podium” Canada made all the Olympic venues freely available to the Canadian team for practice but restricted access by other countries. The aim, of course, is to exploit home advantage to the max and so increase their medal tally.

The book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclestiastes 1:9). There was accusation of home bias in the 1908 Olympics in London, being manifested in a string of protests by American team against rulings by the British officials.

Read the whole article.

Watch it all.

The fatal crash of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old from Georgia, weighed heavily on the opening ceremonies, and chaplains made themselves available to athletes. In a small office in the Olympic Village, Paul Kobylarz leads this year’s Christian chaplaincy program, his fifth Olympics to serve as a chaplain.

“There’s been a lot of confidence displayed toward us being there as a support to handle the questions that come along with a situation like this””the purpose of life and questions about our mortality,” Kobylarz told Christianity Today on Saturday. “We are here to try to answer those questions for the athletes and delegations and to give support in those areas.”

Like many of the chaplains, Kobylarz speaks to athletes from personal experience, having spent three years in Sweden playing professional hockey and 20 years working in sports ministry. Working with athletes at the Olympics is different from other kinds of sports ministry, such as acting as a team chaplain for a professional team, said Kobylarz, who recently became the minister of sports outreach at Traders Point Christian Church in Indianapolis.

Read it all.

i found it really thrilling. If you haven’t seen it–watch it all.

It’s become common in secular society in the past decade for observers, like me, to highlight the strong link between sports and religion.
That connection is even more pronounced with the Olympics, which originated in ancient Greece as a decidedly sacred series of events.
Still, the argument connecting sports to a civil religion has been largely based on external similarities. Thinkers note that sports, like religion, has ritual, builds community, provides purpose, has codes of ethics and requires faith (in one’s favorite team or the potential for victory).
“Sports resemble narrative art, myth and religious ritual. That is, they require that one give oneself over to a story in which the elements of human experience are distilled, displayed and integrated into a pattern of meaning that stirs the heart and quickens the soul,” writes Andrew Cooper in Playing in the Zone.
But what happens in sports at an even more intimate and individual level? What is the inner link between sports and spirituality?

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The Whistler track where Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili died Friday is being changed to lessen a dangerous curve.

Late on Friday night, just after the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, the International Luge Federation said training would resume this weekend after the wall where Kumaritashvili went out of control and slammed into an exposed metal pillar is raised and the track’s ice profile raised.

Vanoc released a statement saying both the BC Coroners Service and FIL officials had investigated the accident. The federation concluded Kumaritashvili failed to make a correction once he entered the final curve and slammed into the pillar.

Read it all and this is a nice photo.

High resolution–wow.