saw some interesting things on tv lately
talk first about how ballparks, especially in the bible belt region, are using "faith night" to bring fans to the ticket booths. this was on espn's 'outside the lines'. now that i try to think about the people they chose to argue whether or not it should be legal or constitutional or right, i realize that they left out an important point of view. there was the guy that says that we should have freedom from religion and he kept saying that why isn't there atheist night, thomas payne was an atheist, they could have motley crew play at the pregame party etc, and he said that baseball is america's pasttime and that it's a beacon for equality like with the color barrier helped being broken, and that most ballparks are funded by the public and the public is diversity so why should jewish taxpayers be funding a ballpark that has christian night and has pre and post game speeches about god and handing out free bibles, and overall that marketing with religion is just wrong.
he made one point that immediately struck me, though, saying that baseball was siding with a certain political view because there were certain pamphlets passed out condemning homosexuality and some other things like that. that's obviously rediculous. if there's anything like that going on when you enter the game, there's no question that needs to be stopped.
but, the other guy, who incidentaly started his chance to argue by singing the beginning of 'amazing grace' (so you know exactly the kind of guy this is), did, immediately, condemn the passing out of that kind of pamphlet. ok. had he never done that, there would have been no argument.
but as it turned out there really was no argument. but maybe i'll get to that if my pizza isn't done too soon here.
so the god guy, emphasizing dr. dobson and the emphasize the family whole thing created there, argued that, well, hmm, i guess he just said things like 'god needs to be praised everywhere' and so he really didn't make much of a point at all. but i think he was on the right side in certain ways.
so that was the problem. we saw some kind of analyst argue that religion shouldn't be marketed and that it should be separate from sport, and we saw a blind faith guy saying blind faith things. where's the guy (or girl, i guess, but i mean, come on, this is baseball) taking the point that it's ok to do this and not just by throwing his hands up to the sky and saying 'god needs to be praised for our future generations or they will lose this country'
so i don't know the answer and that's why it's argued on tv. but the points i wanted to hear weren't said.
yeah, taxpayers paid for many of those stadiums, but they were all aware it was for baseball. they also knew it could be used for other reasons. i'm sure there *are* motley crew type concerts held there, for one thing, and if there aren't then it *is* a regional thing. if you live in the bible belt but are an atheist, you can be just as mad that promotional researches don't recommend your kind of music to play in that stadium because they don't think it will sell, as if you're mad that they don't recommend your kind of (or lack of) faith in a certain religion.
the only way you can get mad about this religious marketing is if you just don't feel religion should be used this way, or if you are someone that just goes to the game and you aren't christian, but you feel the pre or post game ceremonies overlap into the game, perhaps by christians ruining your experience by trying to convert you during the ninth inning. and i could see this happening with groups, but less with christians than other groups - though this may be naive. other than the preachers/reverends etc., i don't see too many of those white folk with 3 kids that they showed at these pregame things coming up to too many people and trying to push their points of view. maybe in the south christians are more pushy, so i don't know. but i bring this up because of an opposite point of view. i could be uncomfortable if there were black rallies before and after pirate games. depending. would i feel unsettled and unaccepted attending a game like that? i'd have to see. so if people of other faiths (though minority in number) are being made to feel uncomfortable (but to what degree i can't say. are you just uncomfortable becuase a lot of people have christian shirts on?) because thousands of people are urging you to stand up and pray to god that chipper jones knocks out a homer to win the game, then religious rallies shouldn't be allowed before and after the games.
i'd imagine that people with other or no religions would rather have god mentioned in the pledge of allegiance than have to physically deal with hyped up christians.
but if there aren't complaints of overbearing christians during the game, then the stadium can be used however the public wants. and in the bible belt, you'll lose the vote if you want it used for an atheist gathering.
so it just leaves the question of should religion be used to market baseball? god's not saying thou shalt go to the game tonight. so you go because you want to attend postgame activities. just like families going because of fireworks that their kids want to see.
and there's probably many other points of view
and then earlier on the discovery channel, this dude was out with bear cubs and he was trying to act like their mother. he noticed they kept coming up to him when the were in the woods and while he was done on all fours and they kept making audible sniffing sounds. it finally clicked with him that they were trying to smell his breath to see what they should be eating. so he'd eat berries and they'd come and smell his breath and then they'd eat those same berries. so he'd chew some certain plant and then they'd go find that plant. apparently this was very recent, and he made the discovery of a tiny organ on the roofs of bears (except bamboo eating pandas) mouths that allowed them to identify exact smells and tastes so that they wouldn't eat poisonous
oh and i had just watched 30 days where this atheist woman had to live with a christian family. i almost wrote somet hings on that a few days ago. maybe why my ears perked this morning
