Mystery fan
I live in a house divided between a die-hard University of Oklahoma fan and an equally loyal Oklahoma State University fan.
I am officially neutral. When OU plays, I root for them. When OSU plays I cheer for them. When they play each other, well, things get rather sticky.
But, just hours before this year’s Bedlam game, this mystery fan got the reprieve of a lifetime. The family OSU fan got invited to watch the game at a friend’s down the street. The OU fan was already headed to Norman because he and a relative had tickets to see the game up close and personal.
At kickoff it dawned on me: I didn’t have to hide my personal affiliation.
I could cheer, jump, hollar and shout for whichever team I wanted … and noone was around to say anything about it!
I had a great time, because of course I have a preference. I’m a fan, albeit mystery fan, of one team in particular and I cheered accordingly.
Noone in the family will ever know just which team I cheered on. They could ask the neighbors, who probably heard me shouting for my favorite players, but why would they?
Remember, officially I’m neutral.
Yeah … right!
P.S. Football is like a religion in Oklahoma, so humor me.
Gimme more! A look at Greed
Editor’s note: This is the second in the seven-part series, “Seven for the Season,” a look at the Seven Deadly Sins.
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Everything you do becomes magnified when you are writing about the Seven Deadly Sins.
Or so it seems.
During my research about Greed, I questioned everything I did. I stopped at Starbucks for a caramel spice cider and wondered If I was being a glutton, since I certainly didn’t need that! A first early-bird shopping trip on Black Friday (my teens had money, I didn’t) had me questioning a lot of my gift-giving plans for the holiday.
Anyway, a chat with the Rev. Robin Meyers helped put it all in perspective. Meyers, pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church, wrote a book in 2004 called “The Virture in the Vice: Finding Seven Lively Virtues in the Seven Deadly Sins.”
We spoke about Greed, the sin that is this week’s focus, but Meyers said if you think about it, all of the Seven Deadly Sins are about excess — too much of this or too much of that.
“They are all about appetites run amok, this whole tendency that we have to do things to excess,” said Meyers.
“They are primarily the sins of the appetite and we can find a reflection of American society in each one of them.”
That comment provided the perfect segueway for a discussion on Greed.
Meyers said he thinks Greed is the sin that is killing America.
“Enough is never enough,” he said.
That greedy mentality leaves out the less fortunate — to everyone’s disadvantage.
“When wanting becomes obsessive, it becomes ‘all about me. I don’t care who else is starving. I want as much as I can’,” Meyers said.
He said greed spells disaster for our world “because it’s not possible for everyone to have more without someone having less.”
Meyers offered up an interesting assertion from a book by Martin Buber. Buber divided relationships into two categories: “I-Thou” relationships that reflect our covenant relationships with God and family and “I-It” relationships that reflect our relationships with items and objects.
According to Buber, humans can become confused about the two different kinds of relationships.
“They try to have soulful relationships with inanimate objects,” Meyers said, referring to materialism.
“There’s a confusion between holy relationships which are ‘I-Thou’ and those that are not, which are ‘I-It’.”
Meyers said money is often at the heart of Greed. People want more and more of it.
“People hunger after things that confer status … like it’s a religion,” he said. “But don’t expect the sacred from the profane.”
In his book, the Oklahoma City minister offers a virtue opposite Greed.
Instead of wallowing in the ‘wanting more and more’ state of Greed, he encourages people to aspire to the virtue of “wanting wisely.”
“There are some things that you can want and you can want them wisely,” Meyers said.
In other words, perhaps you want a pair of shoes and coat because you need a pair of shoes or a new coat because your others are worn out. That’s “wanting wisely.” Perhaps you want to give money to someone in need. That’s “wanting wisely.”
Meyers said Jesus himself gives us lessons on greed. Meyers said Jesus preached against stinginess.
People need to know that if they have more — more money, more food, etc. — “You’re supposed to do something good with it.”
Faithful shopping tips
Twas the night before Black Friday
and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a mouse
The cross hung on the wall
as a faithful reminder
to keep Mom and Dad
from a spending sidewinder.
The cash had been counted,
The credit cards stood ready
For all the super sales
that make the cash registers steady
But just as they crept out the door in a rush
The family linked hands and Dad said “Hush!”
He chunked the credit cards and the children wept:
“We can’t buy happiness, so let’s not go into debt!”
Tis the season that too often turns the most frugal and practical people into overspenders.
Local ministers said the faithful are not immune to the lure of new techno gadgets, the latest toy or the trendy fashions as the holiday shopping season begins in earnest.
Gifts are a part of the season, but they warn their congregations not to go into debt to put presents under the Christmas tree.
Many people, they said, mistake the accumulation of material possessions for happiness. At no time is this myth more prevalent than at the holidays, they said.
“Don’t think you can buy happiness at the holidays because you can’t,” said Alan Day, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Edmond.
Day is in the midst of a Sunday sermon series on money, “What’s in Your Wallet?”
He said it’s important for their health and happiness that people resist the urge to spend more than they can afford.
“Suicide and depression go up during the holidays and part of it is misplaced values,” said Day.
“We load ourselves with activities. We overspend. We try to experience joy from purchases and experiences and that’s not where it comes from. It comes from God.
Day and other religious leaders said focusing on the real meaning of Christmas will keep people from buying in (no pun intended) to the materialism message of the holidays.
“If people can focus on their significant relationships and God’s love, they’ll not experience emotional overload and become a casuality to the holiday season.”
Robin Meyer, pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church, agreed.
“I hope people will go into the holidays thinking about something more than how much they can spend,” said Meyer.
Day, Meyer and others offer the following tips for the faithful as they prepare for the holiday shopping season:
1. Get a plan.
“Create a budget and stick to it,” said Day.
2. If you haven’t planned for this Christmas, don’t go out and buy a bunch of things you can’t afford. Begin planning now for 2008.
3. Focus on your significant relationships and God’s love this season, instead of the need to make purchases.
4. Buy fewer things and make sure they are higher quality like heirloom items that can be passed down to your children.
5. Ask yourself: “Does this purchase make the quality of my life better?”
“A lot of technology seperates people,” said Meyer. “Ask yourself, ‘Do I need another TV? or maybe what I need is one less TV, one less Blackberry and one more conversations with a real person.’ People are starved for that.”
6. Make ethical decisions about what you buy. Don’t invest in a company that is doing things or supports things that you don’t believe in.
—————-
Go online to the Religion and Values blog on NEWSOK.com Saturday to read all about ”Greed,” the second part of the Seven Deadly Sin series.
A look at gluttony
For once I am not necessarily anticipating the turkey, dressing, pie and other foods we’ll likely have for Thanksgiving dinner. For some reason this year I’m more looking forward to spending the holiday with family and catching up on the latest family news than I am anticipating gorging on all the good food.
Trust me, this is a change.
It kind of makes it easier to focus on gluttony, the first of the seven deadly sins that will be the focus of this blog series.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, gluttony is defined as ”excess in eating or drinking” and ”greedy or excessive indulgence.” Deadlysins.com lists gluttony as “an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.”
In her Beliefnet.com story about gluttony, Rebecca Phillips noted that a 1998 Purdue University study found that religious people are more likely to be overweight than other Americans. The Purdue researcher called overeating the “overlooked sin” in religion, compared to other fleshly sins like lust or adultery.
Many faith traditions warn against gluttony or overeating in some way.
For Christianity, one such warning can be found in the book of Proverbs: ”Be not among winebibbers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat; for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. (Proverbs 23:20-21).”
According to Beliefnet.com’s Guide to the Seven Deadly Sins, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the consensus of the early church was that believers should “stop eating while you are still hungry and don’t allow your stomach to be filled to satisfaction.”
Muslims fasting from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan are discouraged from being too gluttonous when breaking the fast with the iftar meal, which is eaten after sunset.
The Hindu text the Tirukkural warns against overeating: “The thoughtless glutton who gorges himself beyond his digestive fire’s limits will be consumed by limitless ills.”
Question: Do you faith beliefs influence how much you eat?
If that question gets you thinking, you might also be interested in taking a Seven Deadly Sins quiz. I took it yesterday and it was remarkably perceptive, much to my chagrin. You can find it at www.4degreez.com/misc/seven_deadly_sins.html.
Seven Deadly Sins 101
If your knowledge of the Seven Deadly Sins extends only as far as the 1995 movie “Seven” with Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow, never fear.
Here’s a brief overview based on a tidbits and research from various sources.
According to Bibleinfo.com, the seven deadly sins were first compiled by Pope Gregory I around the year 600. They are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. Perhaps unwilling to leave out any thought of hope, Gregory also compiled a list of the seven virtues: faith, hope, charity, justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude.
They are not written in the Bible as such, but were seen as spiritual markers for people to steer clear from if they wanted to avoid Hell and enter Heaven.
Proverbs 6: 16-19 does list seven things the Lord “hates” but they are not Gregory’s seven deadly sins. Here’s what Proverbs says: “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren.”
You also might be interested to know:
– According to sevendeadlysins.com, a Web site that contains a bunch of insightful information, Pope Gregory actually ranked the sins from the most serious to the least serious. He ranked the sins like this: pride, envy, anger, sadness, avarice, gluttony, and lust. However, medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas did not think the sins could or should be ranked.
– Gregory had “sadness” as one of his original seven deadly sins, but it was changed to “sloth” in the seventeenth century by the Roman Catholic Church.
– According to “The Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft” by Ernst and Johanna Lehner, people once thought that a special punishment in Hell was reserved for folks who committed certain sins.
Those whose sin was pride were to be broken on a wheel. Envy got you placed in freezing water. A problem with anger meant you were dismembered alive. Those guilty of sloth were thrown in snake pits. The greedy were put in cauldrons of boiling oil. Gluttons were forced to eat rats, toads and snakes. The lusty were smothered in – what else? — fire and brimstone.
– Mohandas Gandhi had his own seven deadly sins he considered the most spiritually perilous to humanity. They are: Wealth without Work; Pleasure without Conscience; Science without Humanity; Knowledge without Character; Politics without Principle; Commerce without Morality; and Worship without Sacrifice.
– Over the years some people have suggested that these seven sins are deemed unforgivable by God.
One last thing: The seven deadly sins were discussed extensively during the Middle Ages as clergy sought to save the souls of sinners. Do you think religous leaders should bring them to the forefront today?
Granny knows best
If you wait long enough you’ll find out everything your parents and grandparents told you is true.
Be honest: How many times has some well-worn admonishment or word of caution from your mother filtered through your brain when you least expect it?
When I read the recent headline saying “Extra weight might not be all that bad,” I had to laugh. My grandmother has been telling me that for years!
She was one of my best cheerleaders as I tried to lose weight last year. However, when I took the weight loss a little too far (in her opinion), she felt duty-bound to say something.
We all know that our wise parents and grandparents always feel duty-bound to say something about the way we live our lives, so I listened patiently, of course.
“Don’t lose too much weight. Any thing could come up and you won’t have anything to fight it with it,” she said, frowning at my baggy clothes.
By this she meant a little “extra” weight that might help me battle certain diseases. I would be considered pleasantly plump or something to that effect.
Anyway, I lost the weight because I needed to eat healthier and to lower my risk of falling prey to certain ailments that run in our family.
But I’ll chuckle all week about this. And I bet my grandmother has already cut out that article to show me … that she was right.
At 81, she’s lived a long time and it looks like she doesn’t always need doctors to tell her what’s what.
Granny does indeed know best.
