In Defense of the Faith?
~ by Nathan Brown, Editor, Signs of the Times, Australia/New Zealand
I like to think of myself as a
mild-mannered editor by day—something of a Clark Kent, perhaps. But a couple of
nights each week I play in a local basketball league. Sadly, I don’t become a
Superman character—it’s generally uglier than that. Too often, it seems I’m a
bad sport—I spend too much of my time complaining to the referees about the
referees. Each week I challenge myself not to say anything to the referees and
consider I have had a good game if I just play the game without backchat.
Bit it isn’t easy. We play in a pretty
rough league. Players get hurt. In the past season alone, our team injury list
included a broken arm, broken ribs and many lesser bruises and scrapes. Some of
my team members have jobs that require them to be fit; they can’t afford to be
injured or they will be unable to work. With this kind of play being allowed,
there is also a greater risk of aggression between the players on the court and
push-and-shove late in an unrestrained game has the potential to flare into
something uglier—and sometimes does.
And my sense of “justice” is offended when
referees allow this kind of play to continue when they have the authority—the
whistle—to keep the games cleaner, fairer and safer.
I believe I have a good case when I try to
point this out to the referees. I believe that even some of them would agree with my
championing the cause of fairness on behalf of my team, if only they would
consider my arguments. The problem, of course, is context.
