And so will the hatred.
I've noticed that the media is showing more and more stuff that mocks Christianity. Like for instance, the show "Survivor". The latest show has a guy on there that claims to be a Christian, and one of the veteran players from previous shows also claims to be one, but he also is all into eaterm religions and who knows what else, calling people "dragon warriors". And these people go running around praying in a group like a football huddle or something! Last night, they did this prayer before a challenge, with the vet player "Coach" already holding a immunity "idol", he leads a group prayer outloud asking that they find the idol that he has already, but the other main "Chrisitian"(a former player's nephew) doesn't know he has it already, so that guy is praying it will be found! A medical student in their "tribe" apparently isn't so Christian, and actually pointed out Coach's hyopcracy and deception, questioning just how Christian he was being! Mission accomplished!
So they win the challenge, and after Coach produced the idol like some kind of answer to their prayers, and the other guy freaks out thanking God for finding it, all the while he was being lied to and deceived. THAT is stuff the mainstream media just loves to put on tv. It makes a mockery of Christianity.
It is the world, and they are definately talking about worldly things on that show, but it is also intentionally hand-picked players. The show puts on there who they want by design. The show basically dictates the storyline, and lately they are really pushing the whole group prayers and asking God for held in winning some stupid carnal game. It's rather embarrassing to watch at times.
If it's available, one might want to watch last night's episode to see what I mean. It's becoming on that show THE specticle.
Also to add - while I like to watch professional sports games on tv(NFL, NBA, and MLB), at the same time, I wonder really how "Christian" some of these players and coaches are that they claim to be, and I wonder if this is also part of the manipulation-all-by-design TPTB are trying to throw deception with.
Take Tim Tebow - I believe we discussed this player last year(on the previous message forum outlay) - I mean I don't know the guy personally, and I don't want to judge him, but seriously, if this man was a true born again, do you really think God would put him in this profession making millions of dollars, which in turn has given him a major obligation to focus all his primary attention with football(ie-players, from what I understand, have to wake up EARLY and run to that game-film room to study every day)? Take another professed born again, Joe Gibbs(former Redskins coach) - he seemed like someone who bears good fruit(never swears, never gets angry, etc), however, he's admitted how he spends 20 hours A DAY when the season is in progress. Yes, 20 hours A DAY. Do you honestly think he has time to spend in prayer and reading the word of God? I also gleamed through one of his books at the bookstore last year - he doesn't even use the NIV when quoting scripture(it was the NLT, which is a pretty bad New Age version).
And let's not forget about these additional perverted versions - where they put born against like Kurt Warner and Shaun Alexander on the cover. Seriously, Warner and Alexander should have said NO, NO, NO THIS IS IDOLATRY! to this.
Ultimately, when Christians see this, it'll end up getting some of them the impression that "Maybe it's OK to yoke up with the world a bit, after all these guys are getting millions of dollars, maybe it's God's blessing?".(ie-it seemed like people got that impression after Warner had that outstanding 1999-2001 run, until he went back to ordinary and then I started hearing comments like "Will Warner now curse God because he doesn't have the success he once had?").
But yeah, sometimes I wonder if Christianity is being used and smeared in professional sports entertainment to not only make a mockery of Christians, but to try to deceive them as well.
