Monday, December 23, 2013

Fowl Ball: America's Pastime Meets Duck Dynasty

I know that many of you may still be wondering how this NFL regular season is going to finish up but did you know that MLB Spring Training is only 2 months away? I am not much of a baseball fan but I know a few people who are counting down the days to a new season. One of the most exhilerating aspects of America’s pastime is the long ball, the home run. Back in the late 90’s I was one of those people drawn in by the home run chase of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. The hoopla surrounding their home run slugging was about as juiced as they were, and we ate it up. As that season and the next went along, the only stat we were following was the home run total. However, with big beefy guys swinging a bat as hard as they could, it was inevitable that they were also going to swing and miss. A lot. And so it’s not surprising that many of the top homerun hitters also lead the league in being struckout. While homeruns are exciting, being struckout can be embarrassing, especially as wildly as some of these guys swing at the ball. In generating power, they lose a bit of their control and there is a tendency to swing hard at almost everything.

The best pure hitters in the game know how to wait for their pitch. They are excellent at reading the pitch and knowing when it’s a good thing to swing at. A pitcher can throw a myriad of pitches and not every batter has the same level of success with certain pitches, so it’s vital that a batter know what they’re good at and what they’re not. They pick their spot and try to get in a good situation where they can get a good pitch and a good opportunity to get on base. They may not hit as many homeruns, but they rarely find themselves embarrassed by a pitch. Homeruns can energize a crowd but players with a high OBP (On Base Percentage) are what help win games and pure hitters have a smart swing and a keen eye for getting on base.

Another aspect of baseball I’d like to mention before getting to the recent situation involving Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson is the perspective of the fans in the stands. Even though I’m not a big baseball fan, as I earlier mentioned, I do enjoy going to a White Sox game from time to time. I love the smell of the food and the evenly cut grass with straight lines makes my OCD heart content. I’ve been there enough times to know that different sections can have very different perspectives. Sitting in the upperdeck and close to homeplate means that almost every high flyball looks like it just may be a homer. You stand up in anticipation but it didn’t even make it out of the infield. It isn’t until the ball actually lands that you see where the ball was heading. Sometimes you are certain that the ball is "going going gone" only to find that the ball trajectory was curving or the wind was pushing/pulling the ball until it lands foul. Our perspective can be flawed.

This past week statements made by Phil Robertson, Duck Dynasty patriarch, caused quite a firestorm on media outlets and the interwebs. As soon as I caught wind of what happened I knew it was going to be a doozy of a week and attempted to stay off of facebook as much as possible to avoid getting drawn in. I was mildly successful and had enough time away from the online activity to really process things a bit. And so, instead of posting a comment here or a comment there and ending up in all of the emotionally charged back and forth that so easily happens, I’m doing this post.

Let me first state that I’ve seen quite a few episodes of the show. We don’t have television programming at home but there always seems to be a marathon of Duck Dynasty going on when I’m spending a holiday with family who do have cable. So I’m familiar with that aspect. I’m also familiar with their personal testimonies shared outside of the actual show. This past Father’s Day, my redneck pastor interviewed 3 of Phil’s boys as a way to talk about fatherhood and the role of faith within their family. They shared their lives with all of their imperfections along with the redemptive work of God every step of the way. And lastly, I’m familiar with the unbelievable amount of marketing that has it’s fingerprints on everything it can get a hold of. I’m guessing that if you’re not a Duck Dynasty type of person, you can’t possibly stand going to Walmart. Their merchandise is everywhere. All that being said, "Here. We. Go."

In his interview with GQ magazine, Phil swung at a pitch and hit the ball hard and far. With every tweet, status update and shared meme this ball went further and further. All across my newsfeed I saw Christians jump out of their seats and start to applaud this pivotal and game changing homerun. But it wasn’t a homerun. Not even close. I’ve seen Phil hit homeruns. Many times! Each and every time he shares his story, and how God intervened to make it His story through the redemptive work of Christ, Phil hits a homerun you can’t deny. "You can put it on the board……Yes!" as Ken Harrelson says for each White Sox homer. When Phil swings at an opportunity to share God’s work in his life and that of his family, it results in a ridiculous amount of glory to God, rather than a bunch of ridiculousness. The opportunity to share about God’s work in our lives is a pitch down the middle of the plate that each of us as followers of Christ ought to hit with great success. Unfortunately, I don’t think we swing at that one nearly as often as we should. You can still strike out even if you didn’t swing the bat and I think many of us do just that every time we fail to share what God is doing in our midst.

In this case, however, Phil did swing and did make contact but this ball went ‘fowl’. We may disagree on how ‘fowl’ this ball went (some say horribly offensive and homophobic, others say he was crass or was just the way he says stuff) but when it comes to baseball a foulball is a foulball. It doesn’t matter if it was just a couple feet from the post in the outfield or spins back into the backstop wall. It’s still foul. Even after a ‘fowlball’ Phil is not out of the game and will have other opportunities to swing. I just hope he saves his swing for ‘his pitch’.

There are pitches that every batter should be able to hit and there are opportunities that every Christian should swing at. However, batters can gain experience in hitting pitches that fall just outside the strike zone. Some may be able to swing at ‘high and tight’ or ‘low and away’ with success if it fits with who they are as a batter and with enough practice. A pitch that may be tough for one batter may be a piece of cake for another. In swinging at a pitch about the definition of sin during an interview with a men’s fashion magazine representative I think Phil was swinging at a loaded pitch. The pitch had something on it and he went for it. He’s a smart guy and maybe he knew it and swung anyway. Homerun hitters think they can hit everything and so maybe pride was an issue in tackling this question. He thought he could handle it fine. Regardless, in my opinion, the swing looked horrible. I know plenty of people who could have at least got on base safely on that pitch. I know others who could have hit that pitch over the left field, center field, or right field wall. That’s because it’s their pitch. They’ve seen that pitch before and they’re more than capable of a smooth swing. This didn’t look like Phil’s pitch.

This is not to say that a Christian has to have a personal experience or superior depth of knowledge about the issues Phil addressed in order to swing at an opportunity like he had. For example: There are followers of Christ who have drug addiction in their past or even their present which is a part of His story and theirs. Their experiences give them an ability to swing at things pertaining to addiction and faith with a tremendous amount of courage. What’s funny is that I can swing at some of the same pitches they face even though I’ve never dealt with substance abuse addiction and honestly know very little about drugs. I have spent the last 10 years working with teenage guys struggling with addiction, broken homes and all that goes along with growing up. I can take a swing at some of those questions whereas others probably shouldn’t.

My overall sense of things is that this just wasn’t Phil’s pitch. He shouldn’t have swung as wildly as he did for one simple reason: He didn’t have to. When I ask someone a question it is usually because there is something I don’t know and I venture that most people knew where Phil stood on this issue long before this pitch. The way in which he went about giving us an anatomy lesson was unhelpful and unnecessary. I can’t speak for what his experience is on this issue but maybe there was something that made him feel qualified to do what he did. Maybe there wasn’t. Regardless, he needs to go back and ‘watch the tape’ on this swing. Where did it get us? Right back in the middle of another divisive debate. He needs to wait for his pitch until or unless he is able to make a better swing at issues of sexuality. There are other batters who may be better equipped to take a swing at this one. By waiting for his pitch, the one that allows him to share his story and His story, he can advance the runner and advance God’s Kingdom. Put that one one the board…….or newsfeed.

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