Trifecta

It was an impressive resume.  According to Jonathan Clegg in The Wall Street Journal, French soccer player Greg Akcelrod climbed "the ranks of European soccer, signing with a top-flight Paris club  and training with a team in Argentina.  He had an agent and a website that showed him scoring a goal for the English club Swindon Town.  He'd even been chosen as an ambassador for Lance Armstrong's charity."  He eventually landed a tryout invitation from an elite European professional team.

On the practice field officials of CSKA Sofia - the most successful soccer team in Bulgarian history - quickly noted his lack of ability and terminated the tryout.

It turned out his website embellished his experience.  It represented amateur games as professional contests.  He wore pro jerseys and posed for pictures at pro stadiums.  Akcelrod scored a goal in a fourth-tier charity game and posted a video of it on the website.  He issued a press release claiming to be a Lance Armstrong ambassador after purchasing a yellow wristband for $1.00.

You can claim to be anything you want, but in the end you're defined by your actions.  Greg Akcelrod is not a professional athlete and his performance exposed him.

Sometimes people who call themselves Christians are betrayed by their actions.  Recently the media highlighted three such episodes.  One concerned the free speech rights of self-described "Baptists" whose case was accepted by the Supreme Court.  They picket military funerals, claiming the deaths are God's punishment for America's acceptance of gays.  The tiny group is led by Fred Phelps, Sr., who sees lots of villains including Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Princess Diana, Mister Rogers, Catholics, Jews, Swedes and the Irish.  The group's unbound hatred is hardly Christian.

ABC's 20/20  broadcast the story of an assistant pastor at an independent church who burned down his house, killing his wife.  He then preyed on compassionate female parishioners who were portrayed as gullible and clueless, which they probably were.  It didn't help that the senior pastor felt he could restore life to the victim's charred body.

Then there's the group calling itself "Hutaree," which they say means "Christian Warrior."  It's nine members are accused of planning to kill law enforcement officers and incite a war against the government.  Their leader rarely attends church and lists his interests as "GOD, guns and girls."

The media hit a trifecta!  Three cases in a row of "Christians" behaving badly.  Rather than questioning whether their actions were inspired by Jesus - and therefore Christian - the stories left the impression they were Christians, plain and simple.

CSKA Sophia's reputation isn't tarnished because Greg Akcelrod was exposed and he was never accorded the status he sought.  But Christianity gets smeared regularly by a media that reports stories without challenging the validity of perpetrator's claims to be Christian.  In these cases, the imposters get the status of being genuinely Christian and nobody questions it.


To add or remove an address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us

Be a Fan