Super Bowl Commercials

Every year, we all gather around our own or someone else's television set to watch the Super Bowl. Even if our team finished on the outside looking in, we still come together to watch the game. Why? The commercials. Everybody loves Super Bowl commercials. This year there was a bit of controversy surrounding a few of the advertisements. CBS refused to run an ad for a male homosexual dating website (I can't remember the name of the site offhand) because it was too provocative and presented a strong point of view on a controversial issue. However, they allowed a commercial from Focus on the Family, a Christian ministry organization founded by James Dobson, to run. The premise of the commercial was to present a pro-life stance on abortion using the story former National Champion and Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother. Now regardless of mine or your point of view, my question is, should the ad have been allowed to run when the homosexual dating site was rejected? It is still a controversial issue with political, sociological, and religious implications and I'm sure most people who saw it had a strong opinion one way or the other. Why would CBS allow this ad and not the other one?

Considerations for Hiring a Youth Pastor

Ok, so I heard something over the weekend from a buddy of mine that disturbs me quite a bit. Apparently, his church is in the process of hiring a youth pastor. He is a college student in school studying pastoral ministry with a focus on youth. He has not applied for the job because of various personal reasons and reservations, but his name seems to have come up in the meetings that the search committee is holding regardless. One of the men on the committee told him that he would not be considered for the job at all because he is unmarried and they claim that they would be concerned with him falling into the temptations that come with working with young girls. Now, I know that none of you reading this know him so you're stuck taking me at my word on this, but my friend (while far from perfect) has absolutely no struggles in this area whatsoever. In fact, he is already in his second year of service as a youth group leader at his church. The man from the search committee who spoke to him sees no fault in his integrity on this point, and says that none of the other members do either. My was pretty heated when he told me all this, and he is frustrated and sick of his character being questioned without reason. The youth group has had problems with this before, once with an unmarried man, and once with a married man who is now actually on the search committee. What? Clearly marriage is not the issue here, and I don't think I could even tell you what was. My friend, who was already beginning the process of looking for a new church seems more eager than ever to just get out. Is he right to leave? Should he at least finish this year with the youth group? Do you think there seem to be some issues with the church here?

It's Been A Year

Okay so the big deal in Washington D.C. this month is that President Barack Obama has been in office for a full year. The media, like they have done throughout all of 2009, has been all over the guy with analysis, opinions, etc. He campaigned with promises to fix the economy and improve conditions in the Middle East by withdrawing troops from Iraq and escalating things in Afghanistan in a renewed effort to catch Osama Bin Laden. The media, after just one year, seems to writing his presidency off as a failure because we are still in a recession, two wars are still being waged to stalemates, and on the whole we seem no further along than this time last year. Is it fair to make a judgment (positive or negative) on the man's presidency just 1/4 of the way through it? If he is failing, how much can we blame on him?

Ridiculous Help for Haiti

I was watching Sportscenter last week in the days following the first massive earthquake in Haiti and I heard some news that initially sounded good but upon further reflection seemed a bit ridiculous. The NFL's Indianapolis Colts were donating $10,000 dollars to aid in the relief fund (their wide receiver Pierre Garcon is from Haiti), and the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball were donating $500,000 dollars to the relief fund. Now don't get me wrong...every bit helps and I'm sure the people of Haiti are thankful for anything in the way of relief right now but lets look at things in perspective. In December 2008, the Yankees, who donated $500,000 to the relief effort, signed three players (C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Mark Texeira), to contracts worth a total of $428.5 million...857 times what they donated to Haiti. The Colts, who donated $10,000 to the signed their future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning to a 7 year deal in March 2004 with $99.2 million. (an average of a little over $14 million per year). The money that Peyton Manning makes alone playing for the Colts is 9,920 times what they donated to the Haitian relief effort. Is it just me or is something wrong here? I am an avid sports fan...but it seems ridiculous to me that we pay people this much to throw a ball around but by comparison, neglect the human needs of those less fortunate than us. Anyone else think maybe this is a little bit backwards?