One Day, Two Stories

Albert Pujols

The Sunday Parade Magazine ran a story about Bethany Hamilton, a promising surfer who lost an arm in a shark attack. Just weeks after the tragedy she got back in the water and learned how to balance her suddenly asymmetrical body on the board. She turned pro in 2007 and now travels the globe on the professional circuit.

She’s also “published five nonfiction books that reflect her strong sense of spirituality.” According to AnnaSophia Robb, who plays Bethany’s part in the film Soul Surfer, “Bethany looks at the attack as a blessing because she’s been able to do so much through it. She could have been a one-week news story, but now she’s inspiring millions.

After the tsunami in Thailand she led 50 children into the water. She says, “Helping them to overcome their fear of the ocean was a great opportunity. There aren’t a lot of good role models out there, so it’s cool that I could be one.”

The amazing 21 year-old is focused on others. She says “I realized that telling my life story could change people’s perspectives on hard times they’re going through.” And so she does.

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That evening, 60 Minutes ran a segment about Albert Pujols, the stellar baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals. Each year in his first 10 years of major league play he’s batted over .300, hit at least 30 home runs and knocked in over100 RBI’s. It’s a record unequaled by anyone, ever.

But the story wasn’t about baseball prowess. It was about the big heart of a guy with boundless compassion and love for people. Pujols sponsors a prom for kids with Down syndrome each year. They walk down a red carpet  in tuxedos and gowns for a night of dancing and fun. Pujols and his wife Deidre attend and stay for the evening. The boys are thrilled to be around him and Albert never declines a chance to dance with the girls.

Each year he travels to the poverty stricken shanty towns of his native Dominican Republic. In places where new clothes and shoes are “like gold,” Pujols finances medical care and provides for other needs. He intends to expand his help to more towns, saying it’s his passion.

In 2010 he joined an elite group by hitting his 400th home run. He quietly took the bat to Texas Children’s Hospital and presented it to a boy with a malignant brain tumor. No press was there – just a “real happy” thirteen year-old hanging out with the best baseball player in the world.

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These extraordinary people are both dedicated Christians who live their faith, but somehow the word “Christian” wasn’t mentioned in either story. No doubt it would have figured prominently if they burned a Quran or picketed a military funeral like the bogus “Christians” who get hyped.

But it’s typical of a media that likes to unfairly cut our faith down while ignoring its nobility.

To view a trailer for Soul Searcher, a movie about Britney please click on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnSrETbfd5Q&feature=player_embedded

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Happy Birthday KJV

William Tyndale

The King James Version of the Bible is celebrating its 400th birthday. Its lyrical, poetic quality has endeared it to generations and it’s the third most popular English version of the Bible today. The KJV’s timeless appeal belies its bloody heritage.

This is history. I know .... it can be dry and boring.   But hang in there for a few paragraphs – it’s an interesting story and there’s no quiz afterward.

No English translation of the Bible was available until John Wyclif got involved. Wyclif believed people should read the Bible themselves rather than having it distilled through the clergy. The Bible and mass were in Latin, which wasn’t understood by most people. This kept the keys to salvation firmly in the hands of a priesthood unwilling to have its teachings questioned.

Wyclif’s followers, who backbiters nicknamed the "Lollards" (meaning “mumblers who talk nonsense”), translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into English but it was banned by the Church. Luckily for Wyclif, he died before being condemned for his work. The Church posthumously charged him with heresy, dug up his remains and burned them.

Enter William Tyndale over a century later. The Vulgate was found to have flaws in its translation from the original Hebrew and Greek texts. Tyndale was a gifted linguist who made it his life’s mission to accurately translate the Bible directly from the original languages into English. His version corrected the distortions in the Vulgate-based Lollard edition.

The Church again disapproved and pushed Tyndale into exile from England.  In the meantime, Henry VIII asked the pope for an annulment of his first marriage (this was before he figured out it was more expedient to trump up charges against his wives and behead them). The pope wouldn’t cooperate, so Henry broke the English Church away from Rome and Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer granted the annulment.

Unfortunately, Henry was as opposed to a vernacular Bible as the Roman Catholic Church. His agents tracked Tyndale down in Brussels and turned him over him to authorities who imprisoned him for a year before burning him at the stake. In an act of mercy his executioners strangled him before lighting the fire.

But Tyndale had already completed the New Testament and the Pentateuch, and the texts were smuggled into England.  Archbishop Cranmer ultimately included it in an English Bible that Henry required every parish in England to buy, apparently without realizing he was promoting Tyndale’s work. 19 years later Henry’s daughter - “Bloody Mary” - became Queen and reinstituted a Catholic hierarchy that burned Cranmer at the stake.

England eventually reverted to Anglicanism and in 1603 King James of Scotland sought to reconcile Protestant factions by commissioning an “Authorized Version” to be used by all. Much of it is Tyndale’s work, and it was published in 1611.

The KJV was completed in peace by sanctioned clergymen. But they’re indebted to Wyclif, Tyndale and Cranmer, intrepid pioneers who were burned for striving to make the Bible accessible to everyone.

Image credit: docfennes.com

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