Filed under: Baseball, MLB, Rants, Sports | Tags: Andy Pettitte, Baseball, Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens, Steroids, The Mitchell Report
Am I the only one that is absolutely sick and disgusted with Roger Clemens? He has been “retiring” for years and every year he plays with some baseball team owner’s emotions, usually Drayton McLane’s. Thankfully, this past year The Astros opted to not play the Roger Clemens game.
Now there is the whole steroid thing. In case you have been living in a third-world country somewhere, or you are an ostrich, Roger Clemens was named in the Mitchell Report, which was a report on the investigation of steroids in baseball. His buddy, Andy Pettitte, was also named in the report by the same source, Brian McNamee, their former trainer. Pettitte came clean and admitted to the use of HGH. Clemens hid for several days, released a statement through his attorney, followed by a taped comment on rogerclemensonline.com, a softball interview on 60 Minutes, and now some 3 weeks later he holds a press conference where he can be asked questions.
During the press conference Clemens played a recorded phone conversation between himself and his former trainer, McNamee. Over and over, McNamee asks Clemens, “what do you want me to do?”, seemingly still at the mercy of his former client and friend. At one point Clemens called McNamee “ridiculous” and quickly recanted saying “the whole thing” was ridiculous. Clemens sounded calculated; McNamee sounded scared. I think I would be too if a multi-millionaire is suing me and I have no evidence to back up statements I made. Of course there is no evidence! Clemens is a smart man and I would imagine he made sure any and all evidence was disposed off. I would also imagine McNamee was quick to comply since he holds, or at least held Clemens in such high regard. However, when admiration is met with prosecution I think the choice is clear; McNamee had to tell the truth. I also think he did.
Not once did Roger Clemens ask McNamee why he lied. Why is that? Clemens tried and tried to bait McNamee into saying something, anything that would help him wiggle out of this predicament. He didn’t get it.
The government wanted to catch a big fish and they found one in Clemens. There is little evidence that points to him but the circumstances certainly don’t look good. Of course, the court of public opinions has convicted Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa with little to no evidence. There are others out there too. Remember this? “If it [the glove] doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Worked out well in that civil suit, didn’t it?
Filed under: Faith, God, Leadership, Legacy Fellowship, Ministry, Prayer, Religion, Teenagers, Youth Ministry, church
Tomorrow night I will be doing something a little differently in youth service; I am casting vision. This is something my Pastor, Tony, does on a fairly regular basis and I think it is a good way to get people excited about what the future could bring. I have never really done this with the youth. I have given them little nugget here and there about what I want to see happen in our youth ministry, but never really shared my full vision. I am actually a little nervous about it. Though I know what my vision for the ministry IS I don’t know exactly what it will look like or how to get it there.
My vision for Filter Student Ministries is for the students involved will truly be involved. I rarely use the word “group” when I refer to Filter; I refer to them as a ministry. We are a ministry and the difference is simple; the word group gives the impression of people coming together (and that is good) but the word ministry gives the impression of a person or group of people coming together in order to love God, His Word, His presence, His purpose and His people. We are not here just to suck air and soda pop. We are here to serve God and His people. We are not here to be the future of society and the church. We are here to be a functional and valuable part of society and the church, NOW.
So, where do we start? How do I get teenagers excited about serving people? I sure can’t do it on my own so I will start by praying…a lot.
